Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. College lacrosse, the 2017 edition, is over. Maryland swept the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s lacrosse championships, leading to lots of love in and around College Park — especially for the men, who ended their well-documented 42-year national title drought. Our remedy for your post-Memorial Day hangover includes the best of Lacrosse Twitter and the top photos from the games in Foxborough, Mass., and Salem, Va. And for the sake of posterity, here are links to coverage from all six NCAA championship games of 2017.
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Limestone rides Reisman to another Division II championship (MD2)
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Salisbury repeats as Division III champion with Blowout of RIT (MD3)
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Gettysburg wins Division III women’s title as Colson sisters sweep (WD3)
2. Ludacris, a three-time Grammy Award-winning rapper from Atlanta, will perform during halftime of Game 1 of the National Lacrosse League finals Saturday at Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Ga. The host Georgia Swarm and two-time defending NLL champion Saskatchewan Rush will play the first game in a best-of-three series. It will be streamed live on Twitter. “The chance to secure a world-class artist while playing for a championship in front of a national audience does not come around every day, and we're looking to make the most of it,” Swarm co-owner and president Andy Arlotta told the Atlanta Business Journal.
3. The Nike/US Lacrosse high school rankings are winding down. MIAA champion Calvert Hall (Md.) and New England newcomer Franklin (Mass.) headlined the National Top 25 for boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, respectively.
4. The IWLCA released its final polls for Divisions I, II and III women’s lacrosse. NCAA champions Maryland, Adelphi and Gettysburg earned all first-place votes in their respective polls. Unsurprisingly, Cinderella stories Boston College and Navy made the largest leaps since the end of the regular season, ranking No. 2 and No. 6 — up from No. 14 and unranked, respectively — following their run to the final four.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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Penn State freshman sensation Mac O’Keefe is playing Junior A box lacrosse in Canada for the Orangeville (Ontario) Northmen this summer.
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Strong sales for NCAA championship weekend on the secondary market could signal an upward trend for lacrosse.
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ESPN lacrosse play-by-play announcer Anish Shroff called his first NCAA championship game Sunday, and the memories of his late mother came flooding back.
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How Matt Rambo’s game will translate immediately to MLL.
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Fionn Crimmins, a 7-year-old with leukemia, had as much to celebrate as any Maryland player after the big win Monday.
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The Baltimore Ravens bigwigs certainly paid attention.
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A high school girls’ lacrosse player in Utah shares her success in the sport as a model for deaf girls.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
And we’re not the only ones.
Maryland’s Colin Heacock and Denver’s Connor Donahue each had acrobatic, highlight-reel goals called back due to crease violations in the waning minutes of a riveting NCAA semifinal Saturday.
In a press conference afterward, Pioneers coach Bill Tierney advocated for legalizing crease dives and also implementing a pure shot clock in college lacrosse.
WHAT’S ON TAP
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The Nike/US Lacrosse season-end college rankings for NCAA Divisions I, II and III men’s and women’s lacrosse come out today. Find them once updated here.
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Maryland will toast its NCAA champions in a celebration event at the university’s softball stadium in College Park.