In a year stricken by postponements and COVID cases across the country, the college lacrosse landscape is settling itself out, and three teams have emerged at the head of the pack, with plenty others following with the attempt to cause some more mayhem this coming May. Duke, Maryland and North Carolina are the three most dominant teams in the country.
Led by Tewaaraton favorite Michael Sowers, the Duke offense is lethal, and can score on the toughest of defenses and goalies. Max Adler and JT Giles-Harris headline a defense that is built to win close games, which should come in handy in their next five ACC games.
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According to Lacrosse Reference, North Carolina boasts the most efficient offense in the land. The Tar Heels are experienced and have played together for years with Chris Gray, Will Perry and Tanner Cook headlining the offense. Collin Krieg has been awesome in the goal and he will look to build off his fabulous freshman campaign the rest of the way.
Despite Maryland’s small sample size of opponents, I think they are the most complete team in Division 1 lacrosse. Jared Bernhardt, Logan Wisnauskas, Bubba Fairman and Anthony Demaio have been in the same offense for four years now and are helped by youngsters Maltz and Long. Nick Grill, Brett Makar and Matt Rahill in front of Logan McNaney is a tough defensive core. The Terps schedule might not be front loaded, but it is built for May. Maryland has dismantled the Big Ten so far this year and their toughest test the rest of the way will be Penn State, who they beat by 6 in February.
I will be very surprised if two of these three are not playing on Memorial Day weekend this May. That being said, the top-10 is deep this year, and a few teams sit just out of the top-4 that could make a late season run, including Denver, Rutgers and Virginia. Luckily, lacrosse fans will get just what they hoped for when Duke and North Carolina go head-to-head Thursday night.
April 1st Top 20
- Duke (1)
- Maryland (2)
- North Carolina (3)
- Syracuse (4)
- Denver (6)
- Virginia (12)
- Army (7)
- Rutgers (5)
- Lehigh (10)
- Georgetown (9)
- Notre Dame (8)
- Richmond (14)
- Hofstra (NR)
- Navy (NR)
- Loyola (11)
- Umass (13)
- Ohio State (17)
- Delaware (16)
- Penn State (NR)
- Vermont (15)
Dropped out: UMBC, Hopkins, Albany
Receiving Votes: Bryant, Albany, Stony Brook, UMBC, Hopkins, Marist, Boston U
TOP STORYLINES FROM THE PAST WEEK
Earlier this week, one of the biggest names in Tehoka Nanticoke was dismissed from the Albany program for the remainder of the year based on internal team issues. Nanticoke’s career will end with 170 points on 109 goals and 61 assists. His next stop should be in the PLL, where he is projected to be drafted this summer. Nanticoke released a statement on his social media Wednesday afternoon.
This past weekend featured some marquee matchups in the nation’s two toughest conferences, the ACC and Big Ten.
It started Thursday night when Duke took down Syracuse after a late rally from the Orange didn’t fall their way. Max Adler had a save at the buzzer to preserve the Blue Devils win. Duke, however, squandered a 12-7 halftime lead to the Orange who made a furious second half rally. Plenty of eyes were on two phenom freshmen, Brennan O’Neill and Owen Hiltz who were ranked 1 and 2 in Inside Lacrosse’s Power 100 freshman. O’Neill finished with a hat trick while Hiltz had a goal and two assists.
Virginia and Notre Dame met Saturday afternoon in South Bend and this game also lived up to its’ hype. Notre Dame entered the game with a 4-0 record but without any quality out of conference wins, while Virginia came in 6-2 (0-2) with some “meh” out of conference wins. They desperately needed to get on the board in the ACC and that they did. Behind Dox Aitken (2g, 2a), who had been quiet most of this year, the Hoos were able to put enough away to withstand Notre Dame’s comeback bid in the last possession. The Irish had the ball as time expired but couldn’t quite get a quality chance at the goal. This gritty win was just what Virginia needed, and they will go into the remainder of their ACC slate with some confidence and a momentum building win.
The ACC this season has close games written all over it.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten had a few quality matchups in Maryland/Rutgers, Hopkins/Penn State and Ohio State/Michigan. The Buckeyes piled on second quarter goals to take down rival Michigan for the second time this season, while Penn State saw an emergence from Mac O’Keefe who has not been his scoring self yet this season. O’Keefe had 4 dominant goals and an assist to lead Penn State to 2-4 on the year.
Maryland and Rutgers went at it once again on Sunday afternoon in Piscataway. After going down 4-1 early the Terps went on a run that Rutgers could not recover from. This Maryland defense was stifling the Rutgers electric offense all day long on a rainy afternoon as they held the Scarlet Knights to just 16 shots on goal and 1 assist on 9 goals. Rutgers had been averaging almost 14 goals a game and were held to just 12 and 9 by the Terps. Jared Bernhardt put on an offensive clinic with 4 goals, 2 assists and this beauty of a step off shot in the win.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES
The Towson Tigers got a huge win to add to their 2020 campaign as they knocked off #13 Loyola behind Tim Montgomery’s hat trick and game winner. This should surely be momentum to bring into the rest of the CAA slate for the Tigers.
TD Ierlan made his debut with Denver and despite the new faceoff rules, went 14-14 at the dot and led the Pios to a 19-11 win on Saturday. Denver is now 5-0 in the Big East and sees Marquette again this coming weekend. Marquette tested the Pioneers last time in the bubble in Milwaukee, only losing 10-9.
Staying in the Big East, without their top offensive player in Jake Carraway, Georgetown was able to come out with a one goal win over Villanova. After starting out really strong, the Hoyas have reeled it back in a bit lately, but still look to be the #2 team in the Big East.
Richmond took down High Point for a huge SoCon win on Friday night. Their 17-10 victory was dominant, and everyone is chasing down the Spiders at this point. Richmond sees Virginia in an out of conference game this weekend.
Navy is back and played their first game since February 28th, beating Bucknell 13-10. A good sign to see the COVID issues at the Naval Academy have subsided and the Mids can get back on the field and chase down Army and Lehigh in the Patriot League.
LOOKING FORWARD
Duke-North Carolina – Thursday, 7pm
Our biggest game of the weekend and debatably the biggest game of the year is Thursday night. Yes, you read that right. Duke and North Carolina are going head-to-head at 7pm on ACCN in a game that should feature goals and plenty of them. Ranking as the 4th and 1st best offenses, we should see a lot of shots, plenty of transition opportunities and a lot of goals. Like the last two ACC matchups we saw, I think this one will come down to the last few possessions. Duke has the edge in offensive firepower, but this UNC team has played together for 3+ years now and has that experience on their side. A big matchup to watch in this one is the goalie play. Will Collin Krieg and Max Adler give either side a significant advantage? If so, that team will win this game.
Syracuse-Notre Dame – Saturday, 12pm
After coming off last possession ACC losses, both teams look to get back on track this weekend. A key matchup to watch will be the Syracuse three headed monster midfield against the defensive midfield of Notre Dame. Syracuse has multiple ways to generate offense while Notre Dame looks to push the ball through Pat Kavanagh behind the cage and find shooters up top and inside. Both teams have solid goalie play in Drake Porter (55%) and Liam Entenmann (63%).
Maryland-Penn State – Saturday, 1pm
Dare I say Penn State found its offense in the most crucial point of the season, with their next two games being Maryland and Rutgers. For Penn State to be in the mix late in the year they need a win in one of their next two games after a 2-4 start. It is going to be a tough task going against the stout Maryland defense, but I think Penn State could keep it close.
Lehigh-Army – Saturday, 1pm
The Top 2 teams in the Patriot League will square off this weekend. Since their win over Syracuse, Army has been quiet, only playing three games in March. Lehigh will slow the pace down and will be tough with Mike Sisselberger at the faceoff X. This game will be a grind-it-out close game from start to finish as both teams are very gritty. I like both of these teams to potentially represent the Patriot League in May, and this will be a great matchup this weekend.
Navy-Loyola – Saturday, 2pm
With both teams looking for a win, which Loyola team will we see. Their biggest struggle is consistency, as they can blow out teams (23 goals vs Bucknell, 20 goals vs Utah) and they can struggle offensively (6 goals vs Lehigh, 6 goals vs Towson). In those two wins they shot the ball 47.6% and 49%, while in the losses they shot 20% and 16.7%. They are a tough team to judge, and so is Navy after getting a month off. Navy has a tough defense which could present problems for the Greyhounds.
UMBC-Vermont – Saturday, 11am, Towson-Hofstra – Saturday, 12pm
Two hometown teams in UMBC and Towson have excellent chances to prove themselves in-conference. UMBC will square up with a Vermont team who is 4-0 in conference, and they will try to assert themselves into the mix in the America East. Towson sees Hofstra, who is coming off a loss to Umass but is a strong team offensively with Ryan Tierney leading the way. If Koby Smith can lock him down like Umass did, the Tigers have a chance to get their first CAA win.
Rutgers and Ohio State square off and the Scarlet Knights are going to try to begin another win streak to end the year. Look for them to jump the gun and get back to their transition style offense while Ohio State will try to slow down the game. I think there is a clear drop off in Maryland/Rutgers and the rest of the Big Ten, so Rutgers should roll Saturday.
All in all, we have another great weekend of lacrosse on the slate. Conference battles are heating up. Time is closing in for the list of bubble teams vying for a spot in the big dance, or teams looking to make some noise in their conference.
For the full list of games this weekend check here.
For a list of live in-game win probabilities, visit here.
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.