Major Movement in Nike/USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Top 20

At least for this week, Virginia is holding up nicely as a preseason No. 1 pick.

The Cavaliers won’t get a mention in the hurly burly of changes in this week’s rankings, mainly because they won about as lopsided a 25-21 game as there’s ever been. Granted, there almost certainly has never been another one (Virginia and Harvard combined for an NCAA record 50 faceoffs), but Virginia had firm control early on.

The Cavaliers scored 10 seconds in and built a 9-0 lead within eight minutes and a 20-8 advantage by halftime. Garbage time came early in Charlottesville, which is why a scramble to the record books to try to discover the last time a team dropped 30 goals in a Division I game (it was in 1999, for the record) ultimately proved irrelevant.

Virginia’s reserves allowed a bunch of goals. No matter. Connor Shellenberger had three goals and seven assists, and Xander Dickson scored five times for the Cavaliers, whose offense is already humming heading into a neutral-site game against fellow unbeaten Ohio State on Saturday.

NIKE/USA LACROSSE
DIVISION I MEN’S TOP 20

Also considered (alphabetical order): Air Force (2-1), Boston University (1-1), Brown (0-1), Denver (1-2), Lehigh (2-0), Syracuse (3-1), Quinnipiac (2-0), Towson (1-1), Vermont (2-1)

Nike/USA Lacrosse Rankings

Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women

HOT

North Carolina (+7)

The Tar Heels split a pair of road games, rallying past Johns Hopkins 11-7 on Tuesday before Sunday’s 8-5 loss at Ohio State. So why the big jump? Well, North Carolina demonstrated plenty of improvement at the defensive end, allowing 10 goals in the first seven quarters of the week before a strong closing kick for the Buckeyes. Goalie Collin Krieg (.673 save percentage) is off to a dazzling start.

Carolina has a lot of new pieces in prominent spots on its offense, and those are a mix of grad transfers and underclassmen who played sparingly last season. Maybe this is a hair high, but the Tar Heels did pick off a high-profile victory away from Chapel Hill — and it came against Hopkins when it had both Jacob Angelus and Russell Melendez available on attack.

Delaware (+4)

Inertia is a wonderful thing. Handling business in reasonably efficient fashion is even better. The Blue Hens blitzed Mount St. Mary’s in a midweek game, then pulled away for a 16-9 defeat of St. John’s on Saturday. There are tougher tests down the road, but Tye Kurtz (five goals, one assist against the Red Storm) and Co. did what was necessary while others across Division I were struggling.

Duke (+4)

Brennan O’Neill already has 13 goals on the season for the Blue Devils, and he delivered a pair of significant ones Friday. He knotted things with 19 seconds remaining against Denver, then scored an extra-man goal 22 seconds into overtime to secure a 14-13 victory. It’s still too soon to tell how good Duke really is. The same isn’t true of O’Neill, who is likely to be a fixture in Tewaaraton conversations.

Jacksonville (+4)

The Dolphins dispatched Marist 13-5 in their first game since upending Duke, and that victory over the Blue Devils is going to keep them in a prominent spot in this weekly exercise for a little while. Georgetown transfer Dylan Watson scored four goals against the Red Foxes, a welcome sign for Jacksonville after the attackman was limited to a goal on nine shots over the team’s first two games.

Ohio State (+4)

The Buckeyes stared down their first significant late-game challenge of the season, scoring five times on 10 shots in the fourth quarter to outlast North Carolina 8-5. Ohio State probably won’t win many artistry points for winning by a score that looks like it came from the pre-shot clock era. But there’s no doubting the gumption of the Buckeyes, the lone remaining unbeaten in the Big Ten.

NOT

Johns Hopkins (-12)

Those questions about whether the Blue Jays are back? Well, the defense did reasonably well against North Carolina, even if it wasn’t as sharp on a short turnaround against Loyola. But the offense managed a mere nine goals over its last game and a half — a number that drops to six when the final two minutes of garbage time against the Greyhounds is removed.

Hopkins is more interesting than it’s been, and it has shown some good things. One of those is a victory over Georgetown that might not be as valuable as anticipated. In any case, the Blue Jays fall back to a bit lower than they were before their Feb. 11 defeat of the Hoyas.

Georgetown (-10)

February isn’t over, and the Hoyas have already lost as many games this season as all of 2022. It’s not time to hit the panic button … but with Notre Dame and Princeton up next, there should be some urgency for Kevin Warne’s team. A one-goal loss to Hopkins and a two-goal setback against Penn won’t ruin the spring, but Georgetown has some work in front of it.

Harvard (-5)

The Crimson were swamped at Virginia early before making the final margin (25-21) more respectable by sticking with starters against the Cavaliers’ reserves. That’s an awesome move on the analytics front, but Harvard still trailed by 13 early in the second half and by a dozen in the fourth quarter. Still, Harvard went to Charlottesville and got blitzed. Here’s guessing plenty of teams around the edge of the Top 20 would endure the same fate — especially with how Virginia played Saturday.

Rutgers (-5)

A 14-13 loss at Army warrants a bit of a dip, but it’s not as if the Scarlet Knights were blown out. In fact, they were a shot away from forcing overtime. Attackman Ross Scott scored five goals and almost had a sixth when he hit a post with 10 seconds to go. For the moment, Rutgers belongs behind Army (which in turn belongs behind a UMass team it lost to in its opener).

IN

Army (No. 15)

The Black Knights vault into the Top 20 for the first time this season after Reese Burek’s five-goal showing against Rutgers. Army gets Wagner on Tuesday inside Michie Stadium before back-to-back Saturday trips to Mercer and Holy Cross.

UMass (No. 14)

Gabriel Procyk surpassed the 100-goal mark for his career by scoring four times in Friday’s 11-3 defeat of UMass Lowell. The Minutemen, who opened with a victory over Army, have a bunch of fascinating non-conference matchups remaining before starting Atlantic 10 play: Boston U, Yale, at Albany, at Vermont, Rutgers and Brown.

OUT

Brown (was No. 15)

The Bears opened with an 11-10 loss to Quinnipiac as Bobcats goalie Nick DiMuccio made 21 saves. It’s almost a given that Devon McLane (two goals, four assists) and the rest of the Brown offense will improve on its 10-for-48 shooting performance, but for now, the Bears will have to play their way back into the Top 20.

Navy (was No. 19)

The Midshipmen were another ranked team done in by a sizzling Metro Atlantic goalie. In their case, it was Manhattan’s Joseph Persico, who stopped 22 shots in the Jaspers’ 6-5 upset in Annapolis on Saturday. Afterward, coach Joe Amplo observed his 3-1 Mids have struggled to put teams away when given the opportunity. It didn’t cost them a week earlier against Hofstra. Navy managed just a 5-for-47 shooting day (including 2 of 40 by its offensive starters) against the defending MAAC champions.

PREVIOUS RANKINGS

• Preseason

• Week 0: February 6

• Week 1: February 13