The Post-Week Tailgate: April 30, 2023

The stakes are higher on Memorial Day Weekend, and even next week when the NCAA tournament begins, but this is my favorite week of the college lacrosse season.

For some teams, their conference tournament doesn’t mean much. They’re already in the NCAA tournament and may even have a home game locked up. But for so many, it all comes down to this week.

Win or your season, and perhaps career, is over.

Win and your dream continues.

Win it all and you’ve got a memory for a lifetime.

For fans, it’s great entertainment … and perhaps a chance to play some hooky from work with afternoon games during the week leading into more great lacrosse at night.

The Big Ten and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference kicked things off on Saturday and the Atlantic Sun and Patriot League renew the fun on Tuesday. Our conference championship central has the full schedule so you can enjoy it all.

Random Observations

The three-headed monster at the top of the ACC, and the national rankings, continues to baffle everyone. Virginia’s Matt Nunes made a career-high 19 saves as the Cavaliers beat No. 1 Notre Dame, 12-8, for the second time this season. Duke, of course, continued its mastery of Virginia with two wins over the Cavaliers this year, while Notre Dame manhandled Duke, 17-12, back on April 8. How do you sort them out?

ESPN made a mistake on a graphic at the start of the Boston College-North Carolina ACC women’s championship game on Sunday, labeling 9/11 hero Welles Crowther as a men’s club lacrosse player at Boston College. Crowther, the “Man in the Red Bandana,” played on the varsity team at BC from 1996 to 1999. The school cut varsity lacrosse following the 2002 season.

Another Boston school, Boston University, is thriving in its place. BU launched its program in 2014 and steadily progressed. Last year, the Terriers reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. On Friday night, BU edged Army 12-11 to win the Patriot League regular season title for the second straight time.

Generational talent Chris Gray lit up the scoreboard in his two years at BU before transferring to North Carolina following the 2019 season and then the program battled through two limited schedules during the COVID pandemic. Now, they’ve come back stronger than ever.

Head coach Ryan Polley, the only coach in program history, has a diverse background that includes being a girls’ high school head coach (Andover), Division II men’s head coach (Merrimack) and Division I defensive coordinator (Yale). Polley is well-respected among his peers, but not a national name. That could be changing.

Delaware can’t be anxious to see Towson in the semifinal round of the CAA tournament. The Tigers played their way into the field by beating the Blue Hens 15-10 on Saturday. The top-seeded Blue Hens host Towson on Thursday evening.

Towson is just 6-8 this season, but that includes overtime setbacks to Drexel and Loyola, a one-goal loss to Stony Brook and a two-goal loss to Denver. Shawn Nadelen’s Tigers are always scrappy and this will be a battle.

Vermont is dangerous once again. Despite losing two of its top three scorers, and offensive coordinator Jake Bernhardt to Maryland, Chris Feifs has the Catamounts in position to make some mayhem in May. Vermont has won seven straight games in America East play and its two conference wins came against teams that won their league regular season titles — Boston University (Patriot League) and Utah (Atlantic Sun).

Yale’s metrics have been good — the NCAA committee had them at No. 9 coming into the weekend — but the Bulldogs are breathing easier after beating rival Harvard 14-11. Yale has its fate in its own hands, no small feat after losing its first three Ivy League games, heading into an Ivy League semifinal against top-seeded Cornell.

You have to feel for UMass-Lowell and St. John’s. Both teams were winless heading into their season finales and suffered excruciating overtime losses. UMass-Lowell led NJIT by as many as five goals and had a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter before losing 11-10. St. John’s scored the first four goals and the game and never trailed by more than one in a 12-11 loss to Providence.

By the Numbers

3 • Consecutive overtime losses by Marquette to end the season, causing the Golden Eagles to miss the Big East tournament, which it will host. The losses came against the top three teams in the league — Georgetown, Villanova and then Denver on Friday night. Marquette, which beat Michigan and Penn State earlier in the year, was so close to a memorable season, but instead finishes 6-8. Six of its eight losses came by a combined eight goals.

16 • Saves for UMass goalie Matt Knote, who leads the country with a 60. 1 save percentage, in a 13-9 win against a dangerous Hobart offense. It’s hard to imagine a save better than this one.

KNOTE SAYS NO

Matt Knote with the unreal 1-on-none save to punctuate @UMassMLacrosse 13-9 win over Hobart.

Knote with 16 saves in the win. pic.twitter.com/CuNeTIZL4C

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 28, 2023

22 • Career-high tying faceoff wins for Denver’s Alec Stathakis in the Pioneers 15-14 overtime win at Marquette.

5 • Consecutive games that Georgetown’s Tucker Dordevic has scored at least four goals. Dordevic had four goals in the Hoyas’ 12-8 win over Villanova — Georgetown’s 10^th straight victory since opening the season 0-3.

76.7 • Lehigh’s Michael Sisselberger’s winning percentage on faceoffs (92 of 120) in the last five games. Sisselberger won 20 of 25 to help key the Mountain Hawks 15-9 win over Loyola on Friday.

200 • Career points for Duke’s Brennan O’Neill. O’Neill hit the mark in 48 games, one game more than Justin Guterding hit the mark in his Duke career.

8 • Consecutive games that Utah has scored at least 18 goals after beating Queens 18-6 to complete an undefeated regular season in the Atlantic Sun. Utah is second in the country in scoring offense, trailing only Virginia.

26 • School-record number of goals scored by Richmond in a 26-10 win over St. Bonaventure. The Spiders, mostly known for their defense under head coach Dan Chemotti’s reign, have topped 20 goals in back-to-back games for the first time in program history.

29 • School-record number of goals scored by Marist in a 29-19 shootout over Quinnipiac in the MAAC tournament on Saturday night. The game featured an NCAA record 52 faceoffs and Marist’s Dylan Bedell won 30 of the 48 draws he took.