Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. For years, Virginia ruled the commonwealth in women’s lacrosse. But last year was tough for the Cavaliers. They lost to James Madison, twice, and lost to Virginia Tech for just the second time in school history.
No. 8 Virginia took a big step towards reestablishing its place in the pecking order, handling No. 6 James Madison 14-9 in Harrisonburg on Wednesday night in a game that was televised in the Mid-Atlantic region. Charlie Campbell made a career-high 15 saves and Avery Shoemaker scored five goals for Virginia, which improved to 8-3.
PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER
In other notable women’s games on Wednesday:
-
Hannah Powers had three goals and three assists as No. 12 Loyola beat Georgetown 13-10.
-
Ashley Britton and Abby Hormes each scored three goals as High Point topped Towson 12-8.
-
Andie Aldave had five goals and nine draw controls as No. 7 Notre Dame improved to 9-0 with an 18-6 win over Vanderbilt
-
Virginia Tech won its third straight, beating Elon 16-8 behind six goals from Emma Crooks.
In the Division III ranks, No. 2 Tufts got a great challenge from No. 13 TCNJ, but prevailed 8-7 on a late goal from Colette Smith.
PHOTO BY KEVIN P. TUCKER
2. The Federation of International Lacrosse announced a set of rules for a new discipline of the sport that it would like member nations to experiment with as the group moves towards positioning the sport for a potential return to the Olympics.
3. It was a D-III kind of day on USLaxMagazine.com yesterday.
-
Tufts coach Casey D’Annolfo with some thoughts on the level of play in the division.
-
Hampden-Sydney head coach Jason Rostan with the secret behind the Tigers’ sizzling 68.6 percent rate on its man-up offense.
-
A look at some great images from this past weekend’s Mustang Classic from John Strohsacker.
The annual Mustang Classic hosted by @StevensonLax brought together some of the nation's top NCAA Division III squads — Amherst, F&M, Wesleyan, Middlebury, RIT, York, Lynchburg, Stevenson, Denison and Dickinson. Photos from John Strohsacker. https://t.co/OXhSXA32MH pic.twitter.com/hRSJjGUdSW
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 20, 2019
4. Katrina Dowd, leading scorer for the 2013 U.S. gold-medal winning women’s team, found herself on the sidelines for the 2017 World Cup. That made her return to a USA uniform this past January all the more special.
“You never think you’re going to be the one that gets cut. But it did happen to me.”@KatrinaDowd4 opens up about her roller-coaster career with @usawlax and the joy of donning the red, white and blue again at Spring Premiere.
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 20, 2019
https://t.co/M94uWvfaCf pic.twitter.com/cztqp9KVHU
5. Marty Delaney has discovered a new frontier for the adaptive sports movement. Lacrosse for the blind.
6. Major League Lacrosse held its supplemental draft on Wednesday and 28 players were picked up. Thomas Hoggarth, who is having a banner season with Buffalo in the National Lacrosse League (53 points in 14 games) went first to Ohio. Complete results available here.
WHAT WE’RE READING
• Erica Brown, head coach of Tiffin University, writes about the challenge of plans going wrong in the latest IWLCA “Behind the Whistle.”
• Portia Hoeg is the new executive director for the Centennial Conference. Hoeg replaces Steve Ulrich, who announced his retirement in August. For lacrosse fans with long memories, Ulrich was one of the architects of the beloved College Lacrosse USA – the first national website for the sport, debuting in the 1990s.
• Some of the MCLA’s top programs will be coming to Maryland this weekend for the fourth annual Battle for Baltimore.
• Tragic story from Colorado, where 52-year-old Chris Hahn died while videotaping his son's high school lacrosse game.
• Dropping 25 pounds has paid big dividends for Albany's Mitch Laffin.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Great look at Lyle Thompson’s version of the Air Gait…but don’t sleep on the groundball that started it off..
Speechless #HumpDayJumpDay | @lyle4thompson pic.twitter.com/8QQbrvcf4C
— Georgia Swarm (@GeorgiaSwarmLAX) March 20, 2019
WHAT’S ON TAP
-
Get ready for a pair of nationally-televised women's lacrosse games this evening. No. 2 Maryland heads to Penn State for a 5 p.m. game on ESPNU and then No. 10 Michigan visits Ohio State at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
-
Subscribe today to our weekly email newsletter and stay connected to each week's top lacrosse stories. The newsletter goes out every Thursday.