Weekend One-Liners: What to Watch for in Men's Lacrosse
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© 2024 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
© 2024 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
The advent of Atlantic 10 men’s lacrosse might not have generated the same buzz as the Big Ten got a decade ago or even the Big East before that, but the realignment promised new rivalries and exciting parity.
Who ya got this weekend? High Point at UMass, Richmond at Saint Joseph’s and St. Bonaventure at Hobart all feel like toss-ups as conference play gets underway. That’s as it should be.
If we’ve learned anything from March Madness, it’s that mid-major conferences always deliver on unpredictability.
High Point, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s and UMass all have recent NCAA tournament experience. Hobart has history that dates back to the 19th century and includes an incredible run of Division III championships. St. Bonaventure played for a conference title last year and nearly won the thing in just it fourth season of existence.
It’s just a cool conglomeration of teams. The inaugural A-10 race starts Saturday. High Point-UMass and Richmond-St. Joe’s make the big board of games to watch this weekend.
All times Eastern
GAME OF THE WEEK
No. 3 Duke (9-1) at No. 1 Virginia (7-1) – Friday 5 p.m. (ESPNU)
Happy hour lacrosse returns to Charlottesville, where the top-ranked Cavaliers are hoping to end an incredibly frustrating streak — they’ve lost 16 straight regular-season games to the Blue Devils dating back to 2005.
UPSET WATCH
No. 9 Jacksonville (8-1) at Utah (4-4) – Friday 8 p.m. (P12+)
The Utes have won three straight and before that hung tough with Rutgers and Johns Hopkins, not to mention they spoiled Jacksonville’s homecoming last year following the Dolphins’ surprising sweep of Denver and Air Force in Colorado.
Dartmouth (6-1) at No. 5 Cornell (6-1) – Saturday 12 p.m. (ESPN+)
The Big Green got blasted at North Carolina 25-7 in their last prove-it game, but seem better positioned to grind with Cornell on the heels of their comeback OT win against Harvard last week — their first Ivy League triumph since 2015.
No. 13 Denver (4-3) at No. 20 Georgetown (4-3) – Saturday 12 p.m. (FloSports)
The Hoyas have dug themselves out of an 0-3 start but still don’t look right defensively, which speaks to how important close defenseman Gibson Smith and goalie Owen McElroy were to the unit’s success in recent seasons.
No. 19 Yale (3-3) at No. 17 Penn (3-4) – Saturday 12 p.m. (ESPN+)
Cornell and Princeton have established early eminence in the Ivy League and exposed Yale and Penn’s flaws in recent weeks, giving this game a down-to-the-wire vibe as two teams look to use it as a springboard for a successful second half of the season.
High Point (6-4) at UMass (5-3) – Saturday 12 p.m. (ESPN+)
The Panthers have never played the Minutemen and may find the sledding tough on the road against a UMass team that owns wins over Army and Brown and yields just 8.88 goals per game — the fifth-best scoring defense in the nation.
Richmond (5-3) at Saint Joseph’s (4-4) – Saturday 1 p.m. (ESPN+)
St. Joe’s four losses have come by a combined seven goals, including narrow one-goal defeats to Johns Hopkins and Penn (in overtime).
No. 2 Notre Dame (6-1) at Syracuse (6-4) – Saturday 2 p.m. (ACCN)
The Orange have won three straight games, but the non-conference respite ends here — as does Syracuse’s home schedule.
No. 10 Rutgers (7-2) at No. 8 Johns Hopkins (8-3) – Saturday 3 p.m. (ESPNU)
Marquette transfer Russell Melendez has been a welcome addition, taking pressure off Jacob Angelus and Garrett Degnon on the Hopkins attack.
No. 14 Ohio State (5-4) at No. 12 Penn State (5-3) – Sunday 12 p.m. (ESPNU)
The Buckeyes must really like their new digs; they’re 5-1 at home (with wins over North Carolina and Rutgers and a close lose to Cornell) and 0-3 away from Columbus.
Matt DaSilva is the editor in chief of USA Lacrosse Magazine. He played LSM at Sachem (N.Y.) and for the club team at Delaware. Somewhere on the dark web resides a GIF of him getting beat for the game-winning goal in the 2002 NCLL final.
