Denver Emerges as No. 1 in USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Top 20

Thank goodness there are almost three more months to sort this out.

Just four weekends into the Division I men’s lacrosse season, it has become nearly impossible to find any sort of logical ordering of the sport. Some of that’s because only five teams (Army, Denver, Harvard, NJIT and Quinnipiac) remain undefeated.

Beyond perhaps Army, it’s not exactly the list of teams everyone anticipated would take unblemished records into the first full week of March.

The de facto Ivy League/ACC Challenge didn’t sort out much beyond the ability of Penn and Princeton to thrive in soggy conditions. Penn held off Duke and Princeton throttled North Carolina on Friday; both lost when they swapped opponents on Sunday.

Johns Hopkins, which itself is about a second away from being undefeated, nabbed a victory at Virginia on Saturday. And Notre Dame responded to an overtime loss to Georgetown by handling Maryland.

Want to argue unbeaten Denver should be No. 1? Go ahead. Or unblemished Army, which has won at Syracuse and Rutgers. Maybe Duke should have stayed at the top despite its stumble in the rain. Or how about Notre Dame?

None of those answers are necessarily wrong. Fortunately, there is plenty of time to figure which one is right.

USA LACROSSE DIVISION I
MEN’S TOP 20

1. Denver, 5-0 (Prev: 5)
2. Notre Dame, 3-1 (Prev: 4)
3. Johns Hopkins, 5-1 (Prev: 8)
4. Duke, 5-1 (Prev: 1)
5. Army, 5-0 (Prev: 6)
6. Virginia, 3-1 (Prev: 2)
7. Maryland, 4-1 (Prev: 3)
8. Cornell, 3-1 (Prev: 7)
9. Penn State, 4-1 (Prev: 11)
10. Georgetown, 3-2 (Prev: 12)
11. Syracuse, 5-2 (Prev: 9)
12. Michigan, 5-1 (Prev: 13)
13. Penn, 3-2 (Prev: 16)
14. Yale, 2-1 (Prev: 10)
15. Princeton, 3-2 (Prev: 14)
16. Rutgers, 4-1 (Prev: 15)
17. Harvard, 5-0 (Prev: 18)
18. Richmond, 3-2 (Prev: 19)
19. Delaware, 2-2 (Prev: 17)
20. North Carolina, 3-2 (Prev: 20)

Also considered (alphabetical order): Colgate (4-3), High Point (4-2), UMass (4-1), NJIT (6-0), Ohio State (4-2), Quinnipiac (4-0), Towson (4-2)

HOT

Johns Hopkins (+5)

The Blue Jays have won five in a row since opening with an overtime loss to Denver, and a few things are clear. They have a multitude of offensive options and potential lineup combinations. Chayse Ierlan’s work in the cage is a definite boost. And there don’t appear to be any glaring statistical deficiencies, though like any team, they have room for improvement in plenty of areas.

Saturday’s 16-14 defeat of Virginia demonstrated Hopkins can keep up with anyone. The Blue Jays kept Virginia within two goals the entire day, and a 4-0 spurt spanning the third and fourth quarters nudged Hopkins ahead for good. Few victories are a better bet to look good to the NCAA tournament committee than a triumph in Charlottesville; just ask Maryland of last season.

Denver (+4)

Hopkins moving up (and Duke, Virginia and Maryland all losing) makes the Pioneers rise as well. Denver hasn’t ventured east since its opening victory at Hopkins, but it has kept winning every Saturday.

The latest — a 15-6 defeat of Le Moyne — was more of an adventure than the final score suggested. After an even first half, Denver scored eight consecutive goals (and 10 of 11 overall) in the second half to put away the first-year Division I team.

Penn (+3)

OK, so Sunday’s 13-9 loss at North Carolina wasn’t an ideal cap to the weekend. But the Quakers still turned in a stellar showing Friday, as Brendan Lavelle did a superb job on Duke’s Brennan O’Neill while Ben Smith and Luke DiNola both produced three goals and two assists in a 14-12 victory in Durham.

That warrants a bump, and (like Hopkins) Penn now has a victory near-certain to carry value to the very end of the regular season.

NOT

Virginia (-4)

The Cavaliers allowed Hopkins to shoot 38.1 percent for the game and 40 percent in the second half, and that (along with faceoff specialist Anthony Ghobriel’s absence) offers a good glimpse into what went wrong in a 16-14 loss.

Of course, Virginia has two new starters on defense and had some pieces to replace in its defensive midfield. Some struggles in its toughest test to date shouldn’t be astonishing. The Cavaliers have a quick turnaround, welcoming Robert Morris to Klöckner Stadium on Tuesday before visiting Towson on Saturday.

Maryland (-4)

It felt like the Terrapins — who gutted out overtime victories at Richmond and Syracuse and smothered Princeton to cap a 4-0 February — were due a minor correction. Of course, running into a tough, skilled Notre Dame bunch that was cranky about losing a week earlier to Georgetown didn’t exactly help.

Is Maryland much different than anticipated at the start of the season? Not really. The offense has plenty of strong options but not anyone who can be counted on to carry a team, which is OK. Opponents are shooting 25.7 percent against a defense anchored by a healthy Logan McNaney. And the first month of the season suggests there isn’t much difference between the top 10-15 teams. Even with a dip, the Terps are very much in the mix.

Yale (-4)

In a less hectic week, Yale doesn’t get bumped down quite so far with a 15-14 overtime loss at Penn State. At the same time, the Bulldogs have to regret that a 9-2 halftime lead (and 13-8 edge with two minutes left in the third quarter) was squandered.

In its first game against an NCAA tournament team from last year, Yale showed it can score with anyone. But its defense remains every bit the question mark it was late last season, and permitting opponents to shoot 34.1 percent doesn’t often end well. The Bulldogs will look to bounce back with a trip to Denver.