It was anything but a tumultuous weekend in Division I men’s lacrosse.
Call it a Status Quo Saturday, which have a habit of popping up a couple times a year.
Four teams from last week’s Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 lost, but all fell to teams ranked above them. Ohio State dropped an overtime contest to Maryland. Army played well for a half before fading against Loyola. Delaware slipped up at home against Towson. And Johns Hopkins was drilled 20-9 at No. 1 Penn State on Sunday to complete the weekend schedule.
Little wonder, then, the Blue Jays were the only team to move more than two spots in any direction in this week’s rankings.
While the weekend’s events didn’t alter the landscape much, it did set up the possibility of a fairly unusual development in the Big East: A regular season co-champion failing to make the conference tournament.
Heading into the final weekend of league play, Denver and Villanova are 3-1 in the Big East, while Georgetown, Marquette and Providence are 2-2. If Georgetown upends 0-4 St. John’s, Villanova falls at Providence and Marquette can topple Denver in Milwaukee, there will be a five-way tie at 3-2.
Since all those teams would be 2-2 against each other, the deciding factor would be goal differential in common games. As it stands, Denver (+12), Villanova (+2), Providence (-1) and Georgetown (-3) would get in at the expense of Marquette (-10) — though with Denver-Marquette and Villanova-Providence still to come, that order could change considerably.
As for this week’s rankings, they look quite a bit like last week’s rankings.
Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20
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April 22, 2019
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W/L
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Prev
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Next
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1 |
Penn State |
11-1 |
1 |
4/27 vs. Rutgers |
2 |
Yale |
9-2 |
2 |
4/23 vs. Quinnipiac |
3 |
Maryland |
11-2 |
3 |
4/27 vs. No. 20 Johns Hopkins |
4 |
Duke |
11-3 |
4 |
4/27 vs. No. 11 Notre Dame |
5 |
Penn |
8-3 |
5 |
4/27 vs. Vermont |
6 |
Loyola |
10-3 |
6 |
4/26 at Lafayette |
7 |
Virginia |
11-3 |
7 |
4/27 vs. No. 8 Syracuse/UNC |
8 |
Syracuse |
9-3 |
9 |
4/25 at North Carolina |
9 |
Cornell |
9-4 |
10 |
4/27 vs. Princeton |
10 |
Ohio State |
8-3 |
8 |
4/26 at Michigan |
11 |
Notre Dame |
7-5 |
11 |
4/27 vs. No. 4 Duke |
12 |
Denver |
8-4 |
12 |
4/26 at Marquette |
13 |
UMass |
9-4 |
14 |
24/26 vs. Delaware |
14 |
Towson |
8-4 |
15 |
4/27 at Drexel |
15 |
High Point |
11-2 |
13 |
4/27 vs. Richmond |
16 |
Boston University |
10-4 |
17 |
4/26 at Navy |
17 |
Villanova |
8-5 |
19 |
4/27 at Providence |
18 |
Georgetown |
10-4 |
NR |
4/27 vs. St. John's |
19 |
Army |
9-4 |
18 |
4/26 at NJIT |
20 |
Johns Hopkins |
6-6 |
16 |
4/27 at No. 3 Maryland |
Also considered (alphabetical order): Air Force (9-4), Delaware (10-3), Hobart (10-3), North Carolina (7-6), Princeton (7-6), Richmond (8-5), Rutgers (7-6)