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US Lacrosse College Notebook
May 14, 2004
Chasing History
Over the last decade, Princeton and Syracuse have been the most dominant teams in Division I men's lacrosse and their top stars--Ryan Boyle of Princeton and Michael Powell of Syracuse--both have one title under their belts. They're each looking to add to the collection, but the team with the most on the line this year is top-seeded Johns Hopkins.
The Blue Jays have advanced further in the NCAA Tournament every year in Dave Pietramala's tenure as head coach at Hopkins, reaching the championship game last year after a semifinal appearance in 2002 and a quarterfinal trip in 2001.
The challenge this year is to bring home Hopkins first national championship since 1987. Hopkins only loss during the season was to Virginia, but the Blue Jays had some close calls. Hopkins beat Penn, North Carolina, Duke and Navy by a single goal and North Carolina could be looming in the quarterfinals. Hopkins hosts Providence and North Carolina hosts Ohio State in the opening round.
Around the Country
A Tough Climb
Georgetown played in the NCAA Division I women's final in 2001 and 2002, but a third trip in four years would be an almost unbelievable run. The Hoyas opened tournament play on Thursday by going on the road to defeat Duke 13-12 in overtime and it won't get any easier. Georgetown will play third-seeded Maryland in the quarterfinals on Sunday. If Georgetown and the top seeds continue to win, Georgetown would have to beat the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds to win the national championship.
Near Perfection
This year's four-team NCAA Men's Division II field is easily the strongest since the field expanded to four teams in 2001.The four teams combined for only three losses--one of those to Division I North Carolina--and the other two came to each other. LeMoyne is 14-0, but played none of the other three teams. LeMoyne will play defending champion New York Tech next weekend in one semifinal. Mercyhurst handed Tech its only loss and Limestone, which was 14-0 before falling to UNC, gave Mercyhurst its only loss.
Golden Touch?
After rolling past Limestone 23-12 in the semifinals on Thursday, West Chester is in position to win its second national championship in the last three years. The Golden Rams are averaging over 17 goals per game, but standing in their way will be Adelphi. Adelphi was undefeated before falling to C.W. Post 15-9 in its final regular season game. Adelphi avenged that loss with a 11-10 victory over C.W. Post in the semifinals in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday.
Can Anyone Stop the Gulls?
Salisbury is the defending champion in men's Division III and the Gulls are heavy favorites to repeat. Salisbury is a perfect 16-0 and only Gettysburg and Goucher got within six of them this season. This year's Salisbury team is its dominant since the 1995 squad which won the NCAA title, beating its three opponents by an average of 12.0 goals per game.
New Kid on the Block
With a 16-2 mark, Salisbury's women's team is no slouch, but it faces tough competition in this weekend's final four at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y. The other three schools--Amherst, The College of New Jersey and Middlebury have won every NCAA title since 1991. Amherst is the defending champion, TCNJ won from 1991-96 and again in 1998 and 2000 and Middlebury won the 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2002 titles.
US Lacrosse College Notebook is a weekly feature on the US Lacrosse web site. For information about supporting the sport through membership in US Lacrosse, visit our membership page.
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Previous Notebooks
• May 7, 2004
• April 30, 2004
• April 23, 2004
• April 16, 2004
• April 9, 2004
• April 2, 2004
• March 26, 2004
• March 19, 2004
• March 12, 2004
• March 5, 2004
• Feb. 27, 2004
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