Every college lacrosse team has played at least one game after this past weekend, and with that the 2022 season is officially FULLY underway. All of the Ivy League teams are underway in their 2022 campaign after taking just about two full years off. It is interesting to me to see the differences in some of the schedules of the top teams. Some teams take it easy in the early going, playing games that might be considered “cupcakes” while others kick it up a notch and play top-20 and even top-10 out of conference opponents to get a good test of where the team is in February. A lot of the latter teams could see their ranking jump early in the season.
Ohio State took on and took down a top-5 team in North Carolina this past weekend. Syracuse hung with top ranked Maryland for three quarters on Sunday afternoon. Michigan has beat up on three inferior opponents early on in the year and find themselves at #17. Jacksonville has taken care of business in February and took down Duke on the road, finding themselves in the top-20. The rest of this week’s rankings are below:
Top 20: Week 2
- Maryland (3-0)
- Virginia (2-0)
- Notre Dame (1-0)
- Georgetown (2-0)
- Duke (4-1)
- Rutgers (4-0)
- Yale (1-0)
- Ohio State (3-0)
- Syracuse (1-1)
- North Carolina (2-1)
- Hopkins (3-1)
- Cornell (1-0)
- Penn (0-1)
- Denver (2-1)
- Army (1-1)
- Delaware (3-0)
- Michigan (3-0)
- Jacksonville (3-1)
- Princeton (1-0)
- Loyola (0-2)
Next 4: Boston U, Villanova, Bryant, Lehigh
THE BIG TEN
The big story last year was the ACC and its depth. They boasted four of the top 10 teams throughout the year and then Syracuse who was no slouch. They had three teams make the Final Four in 2021. The other team was Maryland, the best team in the Big Ten and one of the only teams in the Big Ten who were believed to be competing for a title.
This year has been somewhat of the opposite so far. The Big Ten has four teams who are playing at a crazy level, beating some of the top teams in the country. Maryland went up to the Carrier Dome on Sunday afternoon and showed the country that theyre the best team in the country. Not only do they have the best offense in the nation but they also have a defense who can shut down seasoned offensive veterans on a consistent basis. The Terps beat Syracuse 14-10 in a game that wasn’t close besides two runs at the end of the second and third quarter that kept them in it. Tucker Dordevic had five goals and an assist but the other stars on the Syracuse offense were held in check. Logan Wisnauskas shot the ball like a rocket launcher and Evan McNaney stood his ground in the cage.
Ohio State went down to Chapel Hill and took it to North Carolina, beating them 20-8 in their building. The game was close until the third quarter, when Ohio State went on a major run and didn’t look back. North Carolina had four point scorers in their eight goal outing, while Ohio State had 14 different players record a point in a win over a top-5 team. The Buckeyes rebuilt their offense after losing Tre Leclaire, and senior Jack Myers had two goals and seven assists. The Buckeyes have a few weeks until they start their Big Ten slate which are filled with more big tests.
Michigan and Rutgers are on a roll as well. The Wolverines offense has put up 20 goals in three straight games and let up just three this weekend in their win over Holy Cross. The Scarlet Knights took down one of the top teams in the Patriot League, beating Army by four. Wesleyan transfer Ronan Jacoby had himself 6 goals in the win. Hopkins found themselves down at home to a raucus Loyola crowd and team, but a two goal fourth quarter run gave them the lead and a defensive stop on the last possession sealed the win in the battle of Charles Street.
THE IVY LEAGUE
They’re baaaaack. The Ivy League is back in action after a couple years off due to COVID. Penn opened up with a hard fought loss at home to Georgetown. Sam Handley couldn’t get himself going early which stalled the offense throughout the first half. Once the Hoyas opened their lead they never looked back. The Hoyas without TJ Haley moved to 2-0 as their defense has proven to be big enough to help win big games.
Yale and Villanova played a tightly contested game in the snow in New Haven. Yale climbed out to a big lead early but Nova fought back to make it a one goal game before halftime. Matt Branday and Leo Johnson were big offensively and proved to be too much in the second half as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 17-11 lead before giving Nova three before the final whistle.
Harvard, Princeton and Cornell won in blowouts this past weekend. The Crimson beat up on NJIT 17-4, something they should have done. Im pretty excited to see how they fare against Ohio State next weekend as this past weekend shouldn’t give you much about how their 2022 season is going to go. Princeton took down Monmouth 22-6 and tuned up for a mid-week game against Binghamnton before they go on the road to Maryland. Cornell took down Albany 16-8 as sophomore CJ Kirst had seven points. First year head coach Connor Buczek got his first win at his alma mater and will look to make it two against Lehigh on Saturday.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES
Virginia continued winning, beating Towson 18-9. Payton Cormier and Connor Shellenberger led the way on offense and the Virginia defense only allowed 15 shots on goal throughout the afternoon.
The hawk will never die as St. Joes beat Penn State 15-13 and the Penn St struggles continue. They havent looked like themselves the past few games and this year after losing Mac O’Keefe. They need to find a steady offensive leader as well as fix up their defensive struggles. Matt Bohmer scored six goals for the Hawks who are 2-1 this year.
Notre Dame rolled over Detroit as the combination of Irish goalies posted a 90% save percentage, and the Kavanagh brothers posted a combined 14 points. The Irish look dangerous offensively and defensively and could make a title run in 2022.
WEEK 2 Preview
There are a lot of games to look forward to this coming weekend. There are a few this week that could turn into good games, including Duke–Delaware on Tuesday at 3, UNC–Brown on Wednesday at 1 and Mount–UMBC on Friday at 3pm.
Duke and Penn go toe to toe on Saturday, and it will be interesting to see if Penn can play with another top-10 team. Sam Handley was ineffective dodging on UNC transfer Will Bowen on Saturday, and he will have to go against a stout Duke defense. Duke’s depth should be a problem for Penn’s defense who stopped Georgetown enough, but they were without their top attackman on Saturday.
Loyola is looking for a bounce back win against another Big Ten team in Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights love to run and gun, and Loyola is going to have to match that offensively. Hopefully the Hounds will have their starting goalie Sam Shafer back to step up to Rutgers’ potent offense. Loyola will need contributions from more than just Olmstead and Lindley offensively to keep this game close.
Virginia and Syracuse open up the ACC slate this weekend. They played their first ACC game last year around this time, and the Orange offense lit up to the tune of a 20-10 game. We all know how last year turned out, as UVA went on to win another championship while Syracuse fell off later on in the year. I think this game will be more of a heavyweight bout, with both offenses finding their way and putting in plenty of goals. The ACC is the best conference in lacrose year in and year out, and we will get to see that early on once again.
The Irish of Notre Dame get their first real test this weekend in Georgetown. The Kavanagh brothers are going to be a problem for defenses to stop this year, and I think Georgetown has one of the better defenses to slow them down. Will Bowen and goalie Owen Macelroy should help cool off the Irish, but that Notre Dame defense has most of their defense back from last year including goalie Liam Entenmann. Its going to be a fun one in South Bend.
The Terps are at home this weekend and welcomes Princeton to town. Top rated Maryland should have a test at home, but it is hard to tell how Princeton will be after taking down Monmouth. But we all know they will have their hands full with this Terps team. Logan Wisnauskas is looking like a Tewaaraton contender early on and this Terps defense can stop whoever they want. I don’t expect Maryland to lose this one, but crazier things have happened.
With both teams looking for a big win, Hopkins will head to North Carolina on Sunday afternoon. Hopkins is fresh off a big Charles Street rivalry win while North Carolina needs to find something they couldn’t on Saturday: their offense. Chris Gray is still very capable of taking over any game, and the Hopkins defense will have their hands full trying to stop them this weekend.
College lacrosse is back into the swing of things. With plenty of weekday and weekend games, lacrosse is officially back. We are two weeks away from our next big step into the season, as ACC Thursday night lacrosse begins in two short weeks. A few teams are rising as the cream of the crop, as some Big Ten, ACC and Ivy league teams have solid rosters built on several fifth year transfers and solid recruiting classes.
Lacrosse Analyst
Sam Kuhn currently is the graduate assistant for the men’s lacrosse program at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio and is working to complete his Masters of Business Administration in 2020. Sam graduated from the College of Wooster in 2018, where he received his Bachelors Degree in English and played lacrosse as well. In his four years, Sam was a two time All-NCAC selection, a first team All-Region selection in 2018, and surpassed 100 goals for his career, one of seven members in program history to do so. Sam has interned with Inside Lacrosse, and wrote for the sports section of The Wooster Voice.