Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The Atlas, Chrome and Whipsnakes all improved to 2-0 with wins over the weekend as the Premier Lacrosse League staged four games in Charlotte — its first visit to the Queen City.
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Rookie Logan Wisnauskas, the Tewaaraton Award-winning attackman out of Maryland, scored five goals to lead the Chrome to a convincing 12-3 win Friday over the listless Redwoods, who committed 22 turnovers and shot a dismal 3-for-23.
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Will Manny scored five goals, moving into ninth place all-time in professional field lacrosse history with 390 career points, as the Archers defeated the Chaos 17-12 in Friday’s other game. Both teams are 1-1.
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Trevor Baptiste won 20 of 24 faceoffs and rookie Chris Gray (North Carolina) had two goals and three assists as the Atlas beat the Cannons 16-8 on Saturday.
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Week 2 ended in a thriller. Brad Smith scored in overtime to lift the Whipsnakes to a 12-11 win Saturday over the Waterdogs. Jay Carlson scored five goals and Joe Nardella won 22 of 26 faceoffs for the Whips, who erased a five-goal deficit and won despite committing 26 turnovers.
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The Redwoods, Chaos and Waterdogs remained winless to start the season.
2. The Colorado Mammoth rallied in the second half to defeat the Buffalo Bandits 11-8 and force a decisive Game 3 in the NLL finals.
Playing without top playoff scorer Eli McLaughlin, who was placed on injured reserve just hours before the game, the Mammoth trailed 6-4 at halftime. But Zed Williams (four goals, three assists) and Dillon Ward (40 saves) took over from there.
Colorado is also without its top regular season scorer, Ryan Lee, who went on IR before the Western Conference finals.
The best-of-three series returns to Buffalo for a winner-takes-all finale next Saturday.
3. St. John’s is set to hire Michigan assistant Justin Turri as its next head coach, Inside Lacrosse’s Ty Xanders reported Sunday. With Providence reportedly tabbing Maryland assistant Bobby Benson for its vacancy, that leaves openings at Bryant, NJIT and UMass-Lowell.
4. Drexel women’s lacrosse coach Kim Hillier, placed on personal leave last month, has officially resigned from her position. The university announced the move Friday.
The Dragons won the CAA championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament in Hillier’s lone season at the helm. Assistant coach Katie O’Donnell, who led the team during its playoff run, will remain on staff as interim head coach.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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How Middlebury women’s lacrosse navigated a two-year layoff to come back and win the NCAA championship.
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“That day is coming.” Why former MLL MVP Bryce Wasserman relishes what little time he’ll have playing for the undermanned Chaos.
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Richmond transfer Griffin Kology has transferred to Virginia, following in his brother Kyle’s footsteps to Charlottesville.
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Staples (Conn.) stunned national powerhouse Darien (Conn.) to claim its first-ever Connecticut high school boys’ lacrosse state championship.
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Another historic upset in Michigan, where Bo Lockwood’s overtime goal gave Hartland (Mich.) an 11-10 win over perennial power Brother Rice (Mich.), marking the first time a public school has won the MHSAA Division 1 state title.
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Boys’ Latin (Md.) star Dom Pietramala, the son of former Johns Hopkins coach and current Syracuse assistant Dave Pietramala, was named the Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro Player of the Year.
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A former No. 1 faceoff recruit has transferred from North Carolina to Penn State.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Who says fans don’t show out for pro lacrosse? Incredible atmospheres for the NLL Cup in Colorado and the PLL in Charlotte.
“No one cares about lacrosse.”
— Devan Kaney (@Devan_Kaney) June 12, 2022
Denver: hold my beer pic.twitter.com/lQcMzTQWLf
Thank you, Charlotte @PremierLacrosse x CLT pic.twitter.com/jBG3kkewci
— Mike Rabil (@MichaelRabil) June 12, 2022
Lacrosse leaders in the public eye: USA Lacrosse president and CEO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and PLL president Paul Rabil on “Good Morning America.”
Nearly a year at the helm, @USA_Lacrosse CEO @MarcRiccio21 tells us what he’s focused on and why he thinks #lacrosse is growing so rapidly. #NYSEFloorTalk pic.twitter.com/hNYOtRG6QB
— NYSE (@NYSE) June 11, 2022
"Now we're here in @Tribeca premiering something that's gonna be quite raw, honest, vulnerable...and really the ending is still unwritten."@PaulRabil joins @GMA to talk Fate of a Sport and PLL's new media rights deal with @ESPN pic.twitter.com/T1bYMlWg4G
— Premier Lacrosse League (@PremierLacrosse) June 11, 2022
WHAT’S ON TAP
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Notes from the weekends NLL and PLL action.
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Our July/August edition cover feature on the Maryland men’s lacrosse team.
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Lots of U.S. national team activity at USA Lacrosse HQ this week, including the U21 men’s team training camp and senior men’s team tryouts.