Ten to Watch: Last Licks
by Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
Note: This will be the last of LMO's "Ten to Watch" staff pick 'ems. The champ could come be determined, fittingly, by Villanova-Towson in the CAA championship, as frontrunners B-Logue and Ohanian sport identical records and differ only in that pick.
Check back to LMO in the coming weeks as we continue to prognosticate with no validation during May-hem.
WD1: No. 14 Ohio State at No. 15 Penn State (ALC Semifinal) – Friday, 5:30 p.m.
Hook: It appears these two teams are in a
dogfight on the bubble with fellow ALC semifinalist Vanderbilt
(playing Northwestern) and Ivy Leaguers Dartmouth and Cornell for
two remaining NCAA tournament at-large berths– once you sift
through AQs and surefire at-large qualifiers. Could the ALC sneak
three teams into the tournament? If so, you could be looking at
Vandy and the winner of this game as the two teams joining
Northwestern in the fold.
MD3: NESCAC Tournament (in Middlebury, Vt.)
Semifinal: No. 16 Wesleyan at No. 2 Middlebury –
Saturday, 12 p.m.
Semifinal: No. 13 Tufts vs. No. 18 Bowdoin–
Saturday, 3 p.m.
Championship Game: Sunday, 12 p.m.
Hook: Four of the top 18 teams in Division III
men’s lacrosse converge on Middlebury, Vt. -- essentially
doubling the state's population in the process -- to hash out what
will likely be three bids to the NCAA tournament announced Sunday
night. Middlebury, which has just one blemish on the season, is the
odds-on favorite to earn the automatic qualifier, but the three
other teams have serious at-large aspirations. Tufts has wins over
No. 8 Haverford, No. 12 WNEC and No. 15 Endicott; Wesleyan owns the
only win over Middlebury; and Bowdoin dumped both Tufts and
Wesleyan and lost to the Middlebury by a goal. This tournament is
as much about determining who is the odd man out as it is crowning
a conference champion.
WD3: NESCAC Tournament (in Medford, Mass.)
Semifinal: No. 15 Williams vs.. No. 5 Tufts –
Saturday, 12 p.m.
Semifinal: No. 9 Middlebury vs. No. 3 Colby –
Saturday, 2:30 p.m.
Championship game: Sunday, 12 p.m.
Hook: Going the men's tournament a step better,
the NESCAC women's tourney will boast three of the top nine teams
in the country when the contestants assemble at Tufts this weekend.
Williams and Middlebury -- teams that have made championship game
appearances in their history -- are prohibitive underdogs in their
semifinal match-ups against Tufts and Colby, a pair of relative
NCAA neophytes. The White Mules are the only team to own a win
against No. 1 Salisbury this year, and the Jumbos are the only
squad to hand Colby a defeat, so the championship game could be
classic, if the seeds hold.
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Is there anything better than NESCAC tournament time? The
semifinals in both genders are chalk full of ranked teams making
for the best two days of lacrosse in any conference, in any
division. And what a lot of people forget is the NESCAC
student-athletes don't play for automatic qualifiers, at-large bids
or conference championships - they just play for the 'Love of the
Game.' Really, it's how intercollegiate athletics should be. So its
irrelevant which programs win the title games on Sunday. As long as
the fans arrive home safely and there are enough orange slices for
all the competitors, it will be a great weekend for everyone.
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WD1: No. 7 Princeton at No. 2 Maryland – Saturday, 12 p.m.
Hook: Seeding implications loom for these two.
Princeton does not have a win over a top-five RPI team like
Maryland. The Terps are a near-certainty for a seed, but a loss
here and they could lose ground to Ivy League champion Penn.
WD1: No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 19 Cornell – Saturday, 12 p.m.
Hook: The Irish don’t want to rest on
their Big East championship laurels just because they’re
already in the NCAA tournament. The Big Red, meanwhile, can make a
case for at-large consideration with a win here. Cornell has been
plagued by inconsistency – starting 5-0, losing four
straight, downing Vanderbilt handily, and then getting upset by Ivy
League also-ran Harvard last week. It’s still in the picture
however, and could leap a couple of spots with a victory.
MD1: No. 13 Loyola at No. 8 Johns Hopkins – Saturday, 1 p.m.
Hook: Think Loyola’s a shoe-in,
regardless of the ECAC shakedown? Au contraire. Take a look at the
Greyhounds’ schedule. Where’s the signature win?
Georgetown? The Hounds would rest easier with the ECAC automatic
qualifier, but UMass controls its destiny in that pursuit. Should
the Minutemen beat woeful Rutgers, they get the AQ, putting Loyola
in a crowded at-large pool with potential teams boasting top-five
RPI wins. Beating Hopkins, of course, could give the Greyhounds
that boost. On the flip side, the Blue Jays are fighting for a
seed.
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Loyola lost by one to Notre Dame, lost by one to Syracuse, lost
by two to Duke and UMass -- if they'd had won one of those games,
the Greyhounds would have already punched their ticket. Lose this
one, and they could be the first one out -- the best team not in
the NCAA tournament.
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MD1: No. 10 Brown at No. 4 Princeton – Saturday, 1 p.m.
Hook: Ivy League title on the line —
Brown wins and goes the long route to earning an NCAA tournament
berth (through powerhouses Cornell and Princeton in consecutive
weeks); Princeton wins, and Cornell gets the title and AQ via
tiebreaker for a tie atop the Ivy League (perhaps only validating
the Ivy League tournament starting in 2010).
WD2: No. 1 Adelphi at No. 2 C.W. Post – Saturday, 1 p.m.
Hook: Great scheduling: the clear-cut No. 1
against No. 2 on the last weekend of the season with the league
championship and NCAA tournament’s top seed on the line.
There’s no debate that these two have dominated the division
this year. Adelphi (15-0) has barely been challenged in any game
while steamrolling through its schedule. C.W. Post (15-1) has been
nearly as good, with 15 straight wins since a season-opening loss
at Division I Davidson. The winner clinches the East Coast
Conference championship and the NCAA North Region’s bye into
the national semifinal round.
MD1: No. 19 Colgate at No. 2 Syracuse – Saturday, 2 p.m.
Hook: Colgate’s triple-overtime loss to
Navy in last week’s Patriot League semifinals leaves the
Raiders in the precarious at-large pool, which could not be any
tighter – especially with Hofstra falling in its CAA
semifinal to eat up another at-large bid. However, Colgate has
beaten Syracuse two years in a row, including a 12-11 victory last
year, the Orange’s only loss en route to the national title.
Another Raider upset could cause massive shifts in the RPI
index.
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Normally I don’t have a lot of sympathy for teams left
out of the NCAA men’s lacrosse field. I mean, come on, there
are 16 spots for the 59 teams playing in Division I. If men’s
basketball had the same ratio, you’d be looking at a March
Madness bracket of nearly 100 teams. Does 7-5 or 8-6 really deserve
a shot at the national championship? But this year’s NCAA
season is almost assuredly going to leave tourney-worthy teams
home. Hofstra is in good shape, but its loss to Villanova in the
CAA semifinals took away one bubble spot. If Notre Dame
doesn’t win the GWLL, another spot vanishes as well.
It’s shaping up to be an agonizing wait on Sunday for teams
that legitimately could compete for the title in a season that has
no clear-cut title favorite.
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MD1: Villanova at Towson (CAA Championship Game) – Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Hook: Well, it’s wide open. Wither Villanova, an historically under-funded overachiever, will qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history, or Towson (7-9) will get in with a losing record. Thanks to ‘Nova ousting favorite Hofstra, the trickle effect has shrunk the at-large pool. The Wildcats defeated the Tigers, 13-4, during the regular season. But it was an uncharacteristically off day for Towson goalie Rob Wheeler, who squares off against Villanova counterpart Andrew DiLoreto, easily the CAA’s top two goalie and arguably the top two in the nation.
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A lot of folks in the lacrosse community will be pulling for
Towson in this game – not because they are Tiger fans, but
because they are Tony Seaman fans. He’s not only one of the
most successful coaches ever, ranking eighth among active D-1
coaches in career victories, but he’s one of the best-liked
coaches in the profession. There has been some speculation that
this may be his last year on the sidelines, but a victory over
‘Nova and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament may be just
the thing that keeps him right where he is for a little while
longer.
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| Last Week | 7-3 | 7-3 | 7-3 | 8-2 | 3-7 | 6-4 |
| Overall | 75-35 | 75-35 | 72-38 | 71-39 | 64-46 | 64-46 |
W: Ohio St. @ Penn St.
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Penn State
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Penn State
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Ohio State
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Ohio State
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Ohio State
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Penn State
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M: NESCAC Tournament
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Middlebury
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Middlebury
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Middlebury
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Bowdoin
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Tufts
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Middlebury
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W: NESCAC Tournament
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Colby
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Colby
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Middlebury
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Colby
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Middlebury
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Colby |
W: Princeton @ Maryland
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Maryland
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Maryland
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Princeton
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Maryland
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Maryland
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Princeton |
W: Notre Dame @ Cornell
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Notre Dame
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Notre Dame
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Notre Dame
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Notre Dame
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Notre Dame
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Cornell |
M: Loyola @ Hopkins
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Hopkins
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Hopkins
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Loyola
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Loyola
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Hopkins
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Hopkins
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M: Brown @ Princeton
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Princeton
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Princeton
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Princeton
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Princeton
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Brown
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Princeton
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W: Adelphi @ C.W. Post
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Adelphi
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Adelphi
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C.W. Post
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C.W. Post
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C.W. Post
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Adelphi |
M: Colgate @ Syracuse
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Syracuse
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Syracuse
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Syracuse
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Syracuse
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Syracuse
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Syracuse |
M: Villanova @ Towson
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Villanova
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Towson
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Towson
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Villanova
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Villanova
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Towson
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