Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The U.S. women’s lacrosse team completed a magical summer, beating Canada 11-8 to win the first-ever lacrosse competition in The World Games, a multi-sport Olympic-style event that is supported by the International Olympic Committee. It was the second world championship in just over a week for the U.S. women, as they won the Federation of International Lacrosse Women’s World Cup on July 22.
“I’m really proud of the effort they put into this team,” said U.S. team head coach Ricky Fried. It would’ve been really easy to win the gold medal in England, take a break and mentally check out, but they didn’t do that.”
Including a tour of England last summer, the U.S. women’s team went a perfect 24-0 over the last 12 months to firmly cement itself as the best in the world.
2. There’s one week left in the Major League Lacrosse season, and three of the four playoff spots have been secured. Denver and Ohio, last year’s championship game participants, are tied atop the league standings at 9-4, and Florida has finished the regular season with an 8-6 mark that secured the franchise’s first playoff spot.
Rochester is in fourth place at 7-6, and controls its own playoff destiny, but has a tough challenge with a game against Ohio next Saturday. Three teams — Chesapeake, Charlotte and New York — are a game back at 6-7. Rochester does not fare well in tie-breaker scenarios with those teams. The Rattlers split with Chesapeake and lost to both Charlotte and New York in the only games against those teams.
Charlotte and New York will play each other on Saturday, and the loser will be eliminated from playoff contention. Chesapeake hosts Denver in it final regular season game.
3. The Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association announced its 2017 Hall of Fame class and this year’s honorees are:
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Avery Blake Sr. (Swarthmore, Penn)
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Dave Cottle (Loyola, Maryland)
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Tom Hayes (Drexel, Rutgers)
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Sid Jamieson (Bucknell)
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Jack Kaley (New York Tech)
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Dick Szlasa (Navy, Washington and Lee, Towson)
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Morris Touchstone (Army, Yale)
They will be honored on December 8 during the IMCLA Convention in Baltimore.
PHOTO BY JORDAN BURGESS
Yellow Jackets 2021 Blue (N.Y.) celebrates the club's sixth gold medal in the upper age division in the nine-year history of the US Lacrosse Nationals, won Sunday via a 12-4 defeat of Liberty (N.Y.).
4. New York teams took home the hardware at the US Lacrosse Nationals outside of Richmond over the weekend. The Long Island Yellow Jackets won at the 14U and 13U age groups and Igloo took home the 12U title.
5. Long Island will have a chance to win its second straight UWLX championship. The Sound beat Baltimore 11-7 in the semifinals behind four goals from Dorrien Van Dyke and three goals from Christian Esposito. The Sound will meet Boston in the finals next weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y., after the Storm beat Philadelphia 13-10 in the other semifinal. Bre Hudgins led Boston with three goals.