Dialed In: Your Lacrosse Fix for Monday, Dec. 18

Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:

1. Captain America on top.

Tom Schreiber, a two-time gold medal-winner with the U.S. men’s team program, was named the top player in the Premier Lacrosse League by his peers for the third time. There’s a lot of other red, white and blue players that have won gold on the list.

As voted on by the players.
The 2023 Players Top 50. pic.twitter.com/6W5gbVWMDv

— Premier Lacrosse League (@PremierLacrosse) December 15, 2023

2. Albany continues to impress.

It’s a week before Christmas and Albany has already equaled last season’s win total in the National Lacrosse League. The Firewolves beat Philadelphia 15-10 behind three-goal, five-assist performances from rookie Alex Simmons and Ethan Walker to improve to a league-best 3-0.

Another New York team also had a big weekend as Buffalo celebrated raising last year’s championship banner by beating San Diego 12-9 before an electric crowd of more than 17,000. Our NLL correspondent Jack Goods was on hand.

Missed this energy! pic.twitter.com/T5gBFWiDgp

— Jack Goods (@GoodsOnSports) December 17, 2023

Elsewhere in the league this weekend, Saskatchewan dominated Las Vegas, Halifax beat New York and Vancouver beat Georgia.

3. Dino in the spotlight.

Duke and U.S. men’s team head coach John Danowski doesn’t love the spotlight, but his induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame next month rightfully shines the light on one of the best to ever coach in the sport.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• The Athletic with an interesting article on whether NHL defensemen should play with the longest possible stick – bringing lacrosse very much into the discussion.
• Owen Duffy is the No. 1-rated player in the freshman class by Inside Lacrosse and ready to do big things for North Carolina.
• Peyton Tully plays both lacrosse and hockey at Anthony Wayne HS in Ohio, but a knee injury that sidelined her helped drive her passion for photography, graphic design and social media for the school’s athletic department.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

Ryan Terefenko in transition in Halifax’s big win over the weekend.

GOALS IN TRANSITION ARE ELITE!

Terefenko capitalizes with a wicked shot for the Thunderbirds. pic.twitter.com/yEI1LnPI92

— NLL (@NLL) December 17, 2023

WHAT’S ON TAP

• Voting in Best of Lacrosse continues today.

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