WDIA Teams Take Last Licks at Lindenwood
by David Ely | Special to Lacrosse Magazine
Online
The WDIA regular season has hit its stretch run. Teams have just a
few more games to get ready for their conference tournaments.
There’s only a handful of opportunities left to pad a resume
for the Nationals selection committee.
And there’s no better place for a team to showcase its
potential postseason chops than at this weekend’s Lindenwood
Invitational.
Lindenwood, Santa Clara, Brigham Young, Michigan, Virginia Tech
Club, Minnesota and Central Florida all take the field this weekend
to see if they can add a couple of more notable wins to their
already impressive seasons.
That field boasts three teams (No. 1 Santa Clara, No. 2 Lindenwood
and No. 7 BYU) ranked in the top 10 of the most recent WDIA
poll. Then there’s No. 13 Michigan, No. 11 Virginia
Tech Club and No. 17 Central Florida, setting the stage for
big-time match up after big-time match up throughout the
weekend.
And that’s exactly what Lions coach Jack Cribbin had in mind
when he first decided to establish the event two years ago.
“[The goal was to] bring elite WDIA programs to the Midwest
for a weekend of lacrosse,” Cribbin said. “There was
nothing really in the Midwest and we wanted to attract teams
here.”
The Lindenwood Invitational first took place in 2008 and then took
a year off in 2009 because of scheduling conflicts. But the
event’s popularity already is evident, as Cribbin had to turn
down a number of schools that were interested in making the April
trip to St. Charles, Mo.
What coach wouldn’t want his team to get these kinds of reps
against some of the best the WDIA has to offer this close to
conference tournament time?
Lindenwood plays four games in four days -- the same kind of
schedule it would see in Nationals -- and Cribbin said that the
weekend should be a good measuring stick for his club.
If the Lions play the same level of lacrosse they’ve played
for the past couple of months, then Cribbin should feel good about
their chances in postseason play.
Lindenwood has won 12 games in a row since its one-goal loss to UC
Santa Barbara during February’s Santa Barbara Shootout.
A 4-0 weekend highlighted by a win over Santa Clara would make the
Lions probably the favorite to win Nationals, but Cribbin
isn’t interested in using games played in April to predict
future championships.
“They don’t crown a national champion in the month of
April,” he said. “We’re just trying to get better
and set things up to a invitation to nationals.”
WDIA Notes
With No. 1 Santa Clara’s 17-16 overtime
loss to No. 4 UC Davis on April 3, there are no
undefeated teams left in the WDIA. There are only three one-loss
teams in the WDIA top 25: Santa Clara, No. 3
Lindenwood and No. 20 Boston College
Club … A common theme talking to WDIA coaches this
season has been that the top-tier teams are incredibly even and
that there’s no clear-cut favorite. That point was backed up
when Santa Clara lost to UC Davis. Lindenwood coach Jack Cribbin
said this about the 2010 parity in the WDIA: “The competition
is the best I’ve seen since I got here… I think
there’s no clear-cut favorite. Other years there seemed to be
a clear-cut favorite from the beginning of the year...”
Colorado got a big boost in its push to a
Nationals bid with its 15-14 win over UCLA on
April 4. The Buffaloes are now 8-5 on the season and finish their
schedule with a Saturday game against Colorado
State and an April 26 game against BYU.
