Weekend One-Liners: NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament First-Round Edition

So Selection Sunday was kind of ho hum, eh?

Perhaps a few explosive first-round matchups will awake your senses.

The weekend features nonstop, nationally televised action on ESPNU from noon to about 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Here’s one sentence on each of the NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse tournament first-round games. All times Eastern.

Richmond (11-4) at (2) Virginia (11-3) – Saturday 12 p.m.

The Cavaliers throttled the Spiders 25-8 on March 4, but Richmond is no patsy playing in its fifth NCAA tournament and knowing it beat UVA just last year when the Cavaliers were ranked No. 2 in the country.

Utah (12-4) at (3) Notre Dame (10-2) – Saturday 2:30 p.m.

Despite boasting the nation’s No. 2 offense (16.69 GPG), the Utes are eight-goal underdogs according to DraftKings Sportsbook and will try to exploit the Fighting Irish’s one weakness — faceoffs.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Yale (9-5) at (7) Georgetown (12-3) – Saturday 5 p.m.

Projected as the highest-scoring game on the slate (28.5 O/U) alongside Utah-Notre Dame with two top-10 offenses, the red-hot Hoyas (12 straight wins) have the edge against an uncharacteristically poor Bulldogs defense (61st, 13.64 GPG allowed).

UPSET WATCH

Army (12-3) at (4) Maryland (10-5) – Saturday 7:30 p.m.

This is trench warfare between two teams with Dick Edell pedigrees predicated on discipline and brinkmanship, with the injury-depleted Terps on high alert after Michigan dealt them their most lopsided loss since coach John Tillman took over the team in 2011.

Bryant (12-4) at (6) Johns Hopkins (11-5) – Sunday 12 p.m.

First-year Bryant head coach Brad Ross and first-year Johns Hopkins assistant John Crawley are two of the brightest young offensive minds in the game right now, with Crawley being among the offseason additions (Marquette transfer Russell Melendez and freshman Matt Collison are the others) that have helped the Blue Jays get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019.

Michigan (9-6) at (8) Cornell (11-3) – Sunday 2:30 p.m.

Michigan has all the momentum with its attack coalescing and faceoff unit dominating during the Wolverines’ surprising run to the Big Ten title as the four seed, while the Big Red have had a week to figure out what went wrong in a 22-15 Ivy League semifinal loss to Yale.

Delaware (13-4) at (1) Duke (13-2) – Sunday 5 p.m.

Equally as impressive as the Blue Hens’ 25-goal outburst in an NCAA play-in win over Marist was that Delaware’s No. 3-ranked scoring defense (9.29 GPG allowed) featuring No. 2 PLL draft pick Owen Grant held the Red Foxes to just 10 goals after they came in averaging 18 per game during a six-game winning streak.

Princeton (8-6) at (5) Penn State (9-4) – Sunday 7:30 p.m.

Dueling goalies Michael Gianforcaro (59.2 percent) and Jack Fracyon (57.4 percent) headline a matchup between two teams with almost no shared history beyond playing each other three times during the 1990s.