Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. An award-winning documentary portraying lacrosse from a purely Native American perspective will be available for free streaming this weekend.
US Lacrosse is partnering with One Bowl Productions, the Iroquois Nationals, Thompson Brothers Lacrosse and 4 the Future Foundation to expand access to “Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation.” The celebrated feature-length documentary was produced in 2017 and called by Inside Lacrosse as “the most ambitious, broad-sweeping and beautifully shot lacrosse film to date.”
Viewers can register here to receive a link to view the film for free May 8-9.
2. The Northeast Conference, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Southern Conference men’s lacrosse championship games are set.
Saint Joseph’s is one win away from its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. After defeating LIU in an NEC semifinal Wednesday, the Hawks will host Bryant for the conference title Saturday.
Manhattan, which backed into the top seed in the MAAC tournament, defeated Canisius and will face Monmouth with a chance to win its first conference title since 2002.
Richmond, the two-time defending SoCon champion, will meet High Point in a rematch of the 2019 final. The teams advanced by beating Air Force and Jacksonville, respectively, in the semifinals.
3. Mount St. Mary’s and Wagner prevailed in Northeast Conference women’s lacrosse semifinals Wednesday and will meet in the championship game Saturday.
Also on Wednesday, Towson and Arizona State won play-in games in their respective conference tournaments, keeping their seasons alive.
4. Albany men’s lacrosse coach Scott Marr spoke fondly of Tehoka Nanticoke, the embattled Six Nations star who was dismissed from the team March 31.
In one of his first interviews since that day, Marr spoke with Paul Carcaterra about the behavior that led to the dismissal of Nanticoke on the “Overtime” podcast, which dropped Wednesday morning.
“It’s heart-wrenching, to be honest,” Marr said of Nanticoke, who reportedly had confrontations with teammates and coaches. “I love the kid.”
5. Gettysburg men’s lacrosse coach Hank Janczyk is retiring after 34 seasons at the school. Janczyk, who previously had head coaching stops at Salisbury and Colgate, has 432 career wins — second only to his former Salisbury understudy Jim Berkman. Though he never won an NCAA championship, he led the Bullets to the semifinals 10 times and three national title games (2001, 2002 and 2009).
WHAT WE’RE READING
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Bracketologist Jeremy Fallis’ latest projection of the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse tournament field.
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How COVID-19 affected NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse schedules, as quantified by Patrick Stevens.
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“Emerging from the Dark,” the mental health journey of James Madison’s Brittany Bill, as told to the IWLCA as part of its “Behind the Whistle” series.
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An excerpt on the importance storytelling from “The Coaching Zone,” a new book with lots of lacrosse anecdotes co-authored by John Yeager and Jon Cunha.
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A Hartford Courant story on the Raba family legacy, featuring high school star Jason Raba and his father, Wesleyan coach John Raba.
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A Washington Post feature on Maryland defenseman Nick Grill, proudly representing his family and honoring his late father, who died of ALS.
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The New York Times with an all-access pass to Stony Brook women’s lacrosse and an up-close look at how coach Joe Spallina motivates players by reminding them of the traditional powers who did not recruit them.
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Continued uncertainty surrounding Chase Scanlan and his status with the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team amid an ongoing police investigation into a “domestic incident.”
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How Liz Beville has not lost a game since taking over as the head women’s lacrosse coach at Le Moyne.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Never defeated.
Here’s the official trailer for “Spirit Game.” Remember to register here to stream the movie for free this weekend only.
WHAT’S ON TAP
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Conference championship week kicks into high gear today with men’s lacrosse semifinals in the America East (Albany-UMBC and Stony Brook-Vermont), CAA (Hofstra-Delaware and UMass-Drexel), Big Ten (Michigan-Maryland and Hopkins-Rutgers) and Big East (Providence-Denver and Villanova-Georgetown).
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On the women’s side, there are 16 games, headlined by semifinals in the Patriot League (Colgate-Loyola and Lehigh-Army), Pac-12 (Arizona State-Stanford, Colorado-USC) and Big East (Villanova-Denver and Georgetown-UConn).