Three months ago, it was anyone’s guess just how much of a college lacrosse season there would be.
College football schedules were snarled, especially the deeper things went into autumn. College basketball was every bit a mixed bag, with even eventual national champ Baylor enduring an extended late-season pause.
Denver coach Bill Tierney had the Pioneers open Jan. 30 against Utah, figuring there was bound to be a postponement somewhere and it would be wise to get games in when he could. Denver had one pandemic-related postponement (at Villanova) but made it up last week to close out Big East play.
In fact, the Big East was one of five leagues (along with the ACC, Big Ten, Colonial and Southern) to get all of their conference games in. Both the ACC and Big Ten played all of their league games as scheduled, without any postponements.
Overall, 213 of the 250 scheduled league games (85.2 percent) were either played in the same midweek or weekend slot they were originally scheduled (with some wiggle room for weather and other non-COVID reasons).
Toss in makeup games, and a full 94 percent of conference games were played. That number will tick up to 94.4 percent if Mount St. Mary’s and Wagner make up a postponement on Friday as they’re currently scheduled.
This isn’t much solace for a team like Marist, which was sidelined for more than a month because of a campus-wide pause, or the likes of Holy Cross and Quinnipiac, which shut down their seasons in April. But in aggregate, there was probably less disruption to the sport’s regular season than originally anticipated.
Conf. |
Played on Time (%) |
Played at All (%) |
|---|---|---|
| ACC | 15/15 (100) | 15/15 (100) |
| Big Ten | 30/30 (100) | 30/30 (100) |
| SoCon | 20/21 (95.2) | 21/21 (100) |
| CAA | 22/24 (91.7) | 24/24 (100) |
| Big East | 26/30 (86.7) | 30/30 (100) |
| America East | 32/36 (88.9) | 34/36 (94.4) |
| Northeast | 23/32 (71.9) | 30/32 (93.8) |
| Patriot | 25/34 (73.5) | 29/34 (85.3) |
| MAAC | 20/28 (71.4) | 22/28 (78.6) |
| TOTAL | 213/250 (85.2) | 235/250 (94) |
NUMBERS OF NOTE
7
Canisius has earned its five victories this season by a combined seven goals, with the latest tight triumph a 14-13 defeat of Marist in Friday’s Metro Atlantic quarterfinals. Keegan Kozack had three goals and an assist for the Golden Griffins, who visit Manhattan on Wednesday for a semifinal showdown.
10
Notre Dame sophomore Pat Kavanagh had 10 points (five goals, five assists) in Saturday’s 22-8 pounding of Syracuse, setting the Irish’s single-game record. Kavanagh had shared the previous record of nine, reaching that total twice earlier this season (including in Notre Dame’s first game against Syracuse).
12
UMBC is the No. 1 seed in the America East tournament for the first time in 12 years after defeating NJIT 14-6 on Saturday to clinch a share of the regular-season title. The Retrievers last won the America East regular season in 2009, when it went 12-4 en route to an NCAA tournament berth.
30
Long Island goalie Will Mark made 30 saves in the Sharks’ 20-17 loss to Bryant last week, a school record. It is also the most saves of any Division I goaltender in a single game in the last decade (since 2011).