Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The Big Ten Network’s Sunday night lacrosse series launched with a bang, Kyle Marr’s shot clock buzzer-beater in the final minute lifted No. 6 Johns Hopkins to a 13-12 Easter Sunday win over No. 9 Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J.
The Blue Jays, who have won six straight games, trailed by three late in the third quarter. But Patrick Fraser scored the first of his three second-half goals to ignite a four-goal run — including three tallies in a span of 79 seconds bridging the third and fourth quarters.
Johns Hopkins would go up by two midway through the fourth quarter, but a goal off the faceoff by Rutgers long-stick midfielder Garrett Michaeli and a man-up score by Tommy Coyne tied the game at 12.
Blue Jays goalie Brock Turnbaugh came up with a huge point-blank save on Coyne with just over two minutes remaining and allowed the Johns Hopkins offense to go to work for the final possession. Shack Stanwick, who set a school record by extending his point-scoring streak to 57 games, had the Scarlet Knights defense hung up from behind the goal and found Marr, who slung the ball underhand from 10 yards out to score the go-ahead goal with 14 seconds remaining.
WEEKEND HEADLINES
2. Northwestern and Stanford had big weekends, each posting Friday-Sunday sweeps.
The No. 12 Wildcats, who erased a three-goal deficit in the final 13 minutes to defeat Johns Hopkins 11-10 on Friday, knocked off No. 10 Penn on Selena Lasota’s goal in overtime after coughing up a five-goal lead in the second half Sunday. Northwestern has won four games in nine days, a stretch that also includes a victory over No. 13 Syracuse.
The No. 16 Cardinal completed a season sweep of Pac-12 preseason favorite USC, defeating the Trojans for the second time in seven days Sunday to seize first place in the conference. Stanford, which also defeated Arizona State 20-8 on Friday, has won six straight games and nine of 10 overall.
4. Albany’s TD Ierlan and Denver’s Trevor Baptiste, dueling all season long in the race for best faceoff man in the land, exchanged more superlatives Saturday. Ierlan went a perfect 24-for-24, his second time accomplishing the feat this season, in the No. 1 Great Danes’ 13-7 win over Stony Brook. Baptiste moved to No. 2 among the NCAA’s all-time leaders for faceoff wins with a 12-for-15 performance in the No. 4 Pioneers’ 6-5 victory at No. 19 Georgetown.
5. Syracuse is in the driver’s seat of the ACC. The No. 10 Orange followed up last weekend's 15-14 road win at No. 3 Duke with a stifling 10-6 victory over No. 7 Notre Dame at the Carrier Dome on Saturday to improve to 5-3 overall and 3-0 in the ACC.
6. Cindy Timchal became the first coach in NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse history to reach 500 wins, eclipsing the mark Saturday after Navy defeated Holy Cross 19-7. In other milestones, UMass men’s coach Greg Cannella won his 200th career game and Syracuse’s victory was its 900th as a program.
7. Boston College ice hockey and lacrosse standout Kenzie Kent will redshirt the 2018 lacrosse season, the school announced Friday, ending speculation about her availability to return to the Eagles in time for another memorable NCAA tournament run. Kent joined BC midway through the 2017 season and shattered the NCAA tournament record with 37 points in the Eagles’ five-game march to the championship game. BC looks plenty capable of getting back there. The No. 2 Eagles improved to 13-0 with a 15-12 victory over No. 9 Virginia on Saturday.
8. Tom Schreiber will be in the Toronto lineup for the first time since Feb. 10 next Sunday against Georgia and it will be welcome sight for the Rock, who are 2-6 since Schreiber went down with a knee injury.
NLL Week 17 results:
- Colorado 11, Toronto 7
- Rochester 16, Colorado 14
- Buffalo 14, New England 11
- Calgary 13, Vancouver 9