Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Joey Spallina will be the next No. 22 at Syracuse.
Spallina, the No. 1 recruit in the 2022 boys’ class according to Inside Lacrosse, announced his commitment to Syracuse on Tuesday night from Long Island.
Joey Spallina, the top ranked high school junior in the nation, announces his commitment to @CuseMLAX, where he will wear jersey number 22 pic.twitter.com/QV2jz8DaoN
— Lax Sports Network (@LaxSportsNet) September 15, 2020
The son of Stony Brook women’s lacrosse coach Joe Spallina, he had garnered attention through his play with Team 91 Long Island Crush and at Mount Sinai (N.Y.). In total, Spallina has amassed 215 points in his high school career.
Spallina chose the Orange over finalists Virginia, Loyola, North Carolina and Maryland. More on the announcement here.
2. We continue with our Division I Early 2021 rankings with Nos. 20-16.
On the men’s side, Patrick Stevens touches on a team with plenty of potential in 2020 (Princeton), two Patriot League foes (Army and Lehigh) and a pair of teams that have pulled upsets over top teams on numerous occasions in recent years (Richmond and Villanova).
On the women’s side, Kenny DeJohn features four teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference looking to spoil the season for North Carolina (Duke, Boston College, Virginia, Virginia Tech) plus a solid mid-major in UMass.
Check out the rankings as we release them this week.
Division I Men
No. 25 - No. 21
No. 20 - No. 16
Division I Men
No. 25 - No. 21
No. 20 - No. 16
3. Alicia Groveston Jackson was announced as the new head coach at Eastern Michigan.
Groveston Jackson becomes the first coach in program history after Eastern Michigan announced in 2019 it would be adding lacrosse for the 2022-23 season. Groveston Jackson joins EMU after seven seasons building Grand Valley State into a Division II power.
4. One more sleep until the NLL Draft.
While the league is gearing up with the draft at 7 p.m. on Thursday, commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said it has no clear plans for a start date of the 2020-21 season. Sakiewicz did hint at the potential of allowing fans into venues saying “that is what we are working towards.”
Check out the NLL Draft preview and hear more from Sakiewicz.
5. The University of Florida has paused its women’s lacrosse program, in addition to men’s baseball after COVID-19 test results came back with 31 positives, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
According to WRUF, there are 68 positive tests among student-athletes on campus.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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Joey Spallina wasn’t the only top recruit Syracuse picked up on Monday. Five-star middie Carter Kempney committed to the Orange out of Carthage (N.Y.), which has a good record of producing stars.
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More on Yale commit Brody Coleman, who followed in his brother’s footsteps at Cazenovia (N.Y.) nearly 15 years later.
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Lacrosse All Stars’ Way-Too-Early roster forecast for the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s World Championship.
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Joe Keegan presents his second annual PLL All-Film Team after this summer’s Championship Series.
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Major League Lacrosse joined the Rally the Vote initiative, following along the lines of teams from a number of professional sports.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Boston College alum Tess Chandler reflects on one of the most historic runs in recent women’s lacrosse history.
"We were always people before lacrosse players. We had each other's back. We worked hard. And from that, we created this really tight family" -Tess Chandler '18 pic.twitter.com/5hfwspJquc
— BC Women's Lacrosse (@BCwlax) September 15, 2020
The NLL takes us through Challen Rogers’ Draft Day Experience.
Excitement Level: @ChallenRogers’ mom on Draft Day
— NLL (@NLL) September 16, 2020
Stream the #NLLDraft Thursday at 7pm ET on Facebook pic.twitter.com/cfHv07haMh
WHAT’S ON TAP
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Up next in our early rankings are teams ranked from Nos. 15-11.
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More NLL Draft preview material coming your way.