Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. No. 20 Princeton battered No. 8 Penn 21-8 on Wednesday to create a three-way tie atop Ivy League women’s lacrosse.
The host Tigers held the Quakers scoreless for nearly 24 minutes in the first half, jumping out to a 7-1 lead. Penn pulled within four midway through the second half before Princeton exploded for nine unanswered goals in a 15-minute stretch.
Elizabeth George led the Tigers with five goals. Ellie McNulty and Kyla Sears added four goals apiece in the blowout, which pulled Princeton even with Penn and Dartmouth at 5-1 in the Ivy League. The 21 goals were the most scored against the Quakers since Harvard scored 21 in 1993.
In other Division I women’s lacrosse results Wednesday, No. 9 Loyola scored four unanswered goals in a span of 3 minutes, 34 seconds to pull away from Georgetown 13-9, and No. 10 Towson edged Johns Hopkins 9-8 in a primer for its CAA showdown Saturday with James Madison.
2. Division II women’s lacrosse received the marquee treatment Wednesday from ESPN, as Northeast 10 conference rivals No. 2 Adelphi and No. 3 Le Moyne battled on ESPN3.
The Panthers used three second-half goals by All-American Michele Scannell to help withstand a frantic rally from the Dolphins, notching an 11-8 NE10 victory and handing Le Moyne its first loss of the year. Adelphi led 8-2 early in the second half when Le Moyne started its rally, pulling to within 9-8 with 14 minutes to go, but the Dolphins were never able to pull even. Both teams are now 15-1 on the season.
No. 1 Lindenwood, meanwhile, remained unbeaten with a 14-10 comeback victory at No. 7 LIU Post. Trailing 10-8 with 19 minutes left, visiting Lindenwood scored the final six goals of the game to improve to 16-0 overall. Appropriately, senior Cassie Stucklen, the reason behind the cross-country match-up, tallied the go-ahead goal with 12:25 remaining, and added an insurance goal in the closing minutes.
Based in St. Charles, Mo., the Lions ventured to Long Island for the top-10 showdown to fulfill coach Jack Cribbins’ hometown philosophy: a commitment to every incoming recruit to play at least one road game close to her home before she graduates. Wednesday’s trip completed his pledge to Stucklen, a native of Bayport, N.Y.
3. Multi-sport athletes Brendon Connolly (Marquette), Casey Rose (Rutgers), Justin Shockey (Maryland) and Alex Malitas (Marquette) honed their athleticism on volleyball courts, on the slopes and in the water.
4. Major League Lacrosse teams invested valuable draft picks in faceoff specialists, signaling a shift in philosophy.
5. Jeremy Fallis’ Bracketology before Wednesday night’s games had Loyola, Towson and Penn in contention for the No. 8 seed in the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament. Both Loyola and Towson fortified their cases with wins, while Penn slipped.
6. The Saskatchewan Rush, which clinched the NLL West regular season title way back on Feb. 10, can wrap up a perfect season against their division foes if they defeat Calgary on Saturday. If they need any motivation going into playoffs, it’s that they are just 4-4 against teams still battling for spots in the East.