May 15, 2008

by Jac Coyne, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

The weather was supposed to be a problem on Wednesday, but it proved to be a false alarm as everything nearly went off without a hitch. The tournament director did have to postpone a couple of consolation bracket games in the morning, but other than a swamped field that forced a venue change, the day went pretty well.

The semifinal fields were set in both Divisions I & II (see schedule at bottom) by the end of the day on Wednesday. Thursday consists of a tour and walk-through at Texas Stadium for all of the teams still alive. The rest of the teams are playing out the consolation rounds over at the Ross Stewart Soccer Complex is Farmers Branch.

Michigan Still Alive
It's no secret that Michigan hasn't had great success at the MCLA championships. The odd part is many times the losses have been head-scratchers.

The Wolverines were the top seed in 2001 and lost in the quarters to No. 9 UCSB. In both 2002, '03 and '06, No. 4 UM was upset by fifth-seeded BYU in the quarterfinals. Last year, the Wolverines' fourth-seeded squad was stunned again in the first round by 13th-seeded Northeastern, 13-4.

Prior to this season, Michigan has been ranked fifth or higher in the MCLA tournament seven times this decade, yet has made it to the semifinals just once.

So when a reporter walked up to head coach John Paul after top-seeded Michigan's comfortable, 18-5 victory over Lindenwood in the first round and was about to ask about the possibility of complacency, Paul barely allowed the question to finish before answering.

"No. Not this year," he said. "And not with this team."

Paul wasn't angry with the question - as far as coaches go, he's as level-headed as they get. It was more of an indication of how comfortable he is with this team.

On Wednesday, the Wolverines improved their numbers in tournament play by fending off an inspired effort by ninth-seeded Georgia, 10-8, to advance to semifinals at Texas Stadium on Friday evening.

Michigan will hope the semifinals are a passing of the torch. Paul's club will be battle defending national champion BYU in the second semifinal after the fourth-seeded Cougars won their second-consecutive close shave by edging Simon Fraser, 10-9.

Michigan scored the winning goal on a man-up misdirection play with 3:20 left in the game. Twice earlier in the game, Peter Krauss had crossed at the top of the box with another Wolverine player and flipped the ball to his teammate. This time, however, Krauss faked the flip and all of the Bulldogs swallowed the hook as Krauss fed Riley Kearns all alone on the doorstep. UM would add an empty-netter later for the 10-8 final.

"We have been running that play all year," said Krauss. "It doesn't always work, but it worked there. Everybody did a great job of selling it."

Because of their history in this tournament, everyone is still not sold on the Wolverines even though they appear to be the team to beat. On Friday they'll get their chance to convert the non-believers.

New Kids Still Kicking
The most surprising team in the MCLA this year is Chapman and the Panthers are still alive after taking down Colorado State in the quarterfinals.

Flip Naumburg, who's a pro, said it best in my story above: Chapman was just the better team. And as good as the Michigan-BYU game will be, the Chapman-Arizona State game should be a gem, as well.

-I had a chance to catch a little bit of the UM-Duluth-ASU quarterfinal in the afternoon. The Sun Devils beat the Bulldogs, 8-7, in a very exciting game. Duluth is a blue-collar squad that seemingly takes its cue from goalie Jake Laundert - LM's preseason player of the year selection. Launert and the rugged UMD poles did a great job of shutting off Tyler and Ryan Westfall, ASU's top guns, but they couldn't account for Eric Nelson, who scored six unassisted goals to lead the Sun Devils.

-The BYU-Simon Fraser game was on a neighboring field and I wasn't able to catch too much of the action, but everyone at the contest was raving about the play of BYU goalie Christian Kikumoto. And I found out why. The senior made 20 saves which allowed the Cougars to rally three times from two-goal deficits and take the 10-9 win. A brief coda about Simon Fraser - the Clansmen have no seniors on a team that arguably outplayed (besides Kikumoto) BYU all afternoon. A team to watch out for.

-Westminster is the top seed in Division II but there is some thought that Grand Valley State might be the team to beat. And both Dayton and St. Thomas, the other semifinalists, believe they have the team to win it. From my perspective, D-II is wide open.

Results & Schedule
Division I Quarterfinals
#1 Michigan 10, #9 Georgia 8
#2 Chapman 14, #7 Colorado State 9
#6 Arizona State 8, #3 Minnesota-Duluth 7
#4 BYU 10, #5 Simon Fraser 9

Division II Quarterfinals
#1 Westminster 20, #8 Western Oregon 9
#2 Grand Valley 23, #10 Southwestern 13
#3 St. Thomas 19, #6 Elon 10
#5 Dayton 17, #4 St. John's 9

Friday's Schedule
D2: #2 Grand Valley vs. #3 St. Thomas - 11 a.m. CDT
D2: #1 Westminster vs. #5 Dayton - 2 p.m. CDT
D1: #2 Chapman vs. #6 Arizona State - 5 p.m. CDT
D1: #1 Michigan vs. #4 Brigham Young - 8 p.m. CDT