Professional PLL
06:00 PM
Jul 19
Phi
Den
Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20s get released today, and based on weekend action, expect some significant changes.
In NCAA Division I women's play yesterday, unranked Virginia Tech and Canisius scored upsets of No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 16 Yale, respectively. That followed a Saturday slate that included No. 7 North Carolina handing unbeaten No. 6 Virginia its first loss and No. 19 Loyola cruising past No. 12 Princeton.
Elsewhere over the weekend, No. 2 James Madison handled Rutgers, 16-8, and No. 3 Maryland continued its dominance of No. 10 Syracuse with an 18-11 thumping in the Carrier Dome.
Friday night featured a bit of history, as No. 20 Colorado came back from a seven-goal deficit to defeat visiting Stanford, 18-16, in the first Pac-12 Conference game. Arizona State's addition of varsity women's lacrosse upped the number of member-institutions doing so to six, the minimum needed for a league to automatically qualify its champion for the NCAA tournament and thus incentivizing the Pac-12 to sponsor the sport.
2. On the men's side, Saturday's No. 1 Maryland vs. No. 2 Albany showdown lived up to the billing before nearly 7,500 in College Park, Md., and a Big Ten Network audience, as the Great Danes scored five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter for an 11-10 win.
Albany will assume the pole position today, as the consensus top team in the nation.
That wasn't the only Top-10 matchup Saturday, as No. 7 Notre Dame took a six-goal lead on three occasions before holding off No. 4 Denver, 11-9. The Fighting Irish bounced back nicely from their 12-10 loss at Maryland the week before.
And bouncing back this week represents a task for six ranked teams that fell to unranked foes on a wild Saturday. Tough to pick the most stunning result, but Robert Morris' 12-2 dismantling of No. 14 Marquette in Milwaukee would have to be up there. And, No. 20 Johns Hopkins got its first win at No. 8 Syracuse since 2007 in decisive fashion, 18-7, beginning what turned out to be a rough weekend in the Dome for Orange lacrosse fans.
In case you missed the lone Friday night lights game, Michigan remained undefeated at home with a 14-9 decision over Air Force.
3. Matt Hamilton of our staff recently spent some time with the boys' and girls' lacrosse teams at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (Fla.) High School and authored this feature on the Eagles building out of the Feb. 14 attack on campus.
From the frenetic uncertainty of players' safety during the attack and the subsequent emotional trials of attending up to three funerals a day, to the welcome togetherness of getting back on the field with teammates and the outpouring of support from the Florida lacrosse community, it's been quite a journey to 'normalcy' for these teams.
4. US Lacrosse Friday named the staff that will join head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller in leading the 2019 U.S. Under-19 Women's Team.
Colorado coach Ann Elliott, Bryn Mawr (Md.) coach Brooke Matthews and UMass coach Angela McMahon have been named Team USA's assistant coaches. Meredith Frank McGinnis, coach of Notre Dame (Mass.) Academy, will serve as the assistant manager and work with Lance Basler, general manager of the US Lacrosse national teams program.