midweek review - why not?

Lots of games were played on Wed in Division 3 and a few big Division 1 contests were decided on Tuesday. Duke lost to Cornell 10-6 on Tuesday but the story of the day had to be Lehigh coming back when they were down 11-3 to beat Army 13-12 in OT. Cassesse is doing well with the Mountain Hawks and I expect them to be a legit top 20 team within 2-3 more seasons. Making the transition from mid-level team to top 20 is difficult at the D1 level, especially when you play in a conference like the Patriot league which does not allow athletic scholarships and you have to compete against history-laden top 20 teams like Army or Hobart.

On the Division 3 side of things, Bowdoin beat St. Lawrence 10-6. Endicott continued to roll with a solid 11-9 win over Stevens. Stevens is a dangerous team that can beat anyone on any given day. Endicott did well to put 11 by the SIT keeper and the EC Defense really stepped up as they limited pre-season attackman of the year, JR Oreskovich to 2 goals and an assist. The "Northern Gulls" of Endicott aren't blowing people out like the "Southern Gulls" of Salisbury but don't be surprised to see the two match up head to head in the NC game. Dube had a big day for Endicott putting up 2 goals and helping on 4 others for 6 points on the day.

Wesleyan easily beat Farmingdale State on LI Wednesday afternoon 16-7. The game was never in question but it is interesting to note that the game began on Russ Follansbee's [#15, pictured] hat trick for a 3-0 Wesleyan lead. Farmingdale then scored a goal which was followed up by Jason Ben-Eliyahu's [#27, pictured] hat trick to make the score 6-1. you don't see that every day.

Gettysburg has rebounded nicely with a home win over Cabrini. Gburg is undefeated at home this season but hasn't won a big game on the road yet. That is no way to make it deep into ANY tournament.

In big time MCLA action, my personal favorite team, Chapman out in Cali, beat Colorado State 15-5. Both of these teams are top-level club programs that can and do compete with some of the best programs at the Division 3 level. On Sunday, Michigan beat up on Minnesota pretty badly. I believe the championship game will be a rematch of Michigan-Chapman from earlier in the year. Who will win is anyone's guess.

possible D3 upset

Look out Cabrini... Gettysburg may be back!

Gburg is up on Cabrini 9-4 midway through the 3rd quarter.

Hobart 2009

A lot of people are talking about Hobart right now on the Division 1 side of things. Currently, they are 5-0, are playing great D and getting done on the offensive end when they have to. They haven't been putting up a TON of points although they did drop 15 goals on Georgetown last weekend. The Statesmen haven't played the best competition so far as none of the teams they have beaten have a winning record or are even considered perennial contenders save for the seemingly ever-disappointing Georgetown. They have also beaten Binghamton, Providence, St. Joe's and Bucknell. Coming up they have Rutgers, who is 1-5, then the Cuse in the dome followed by an easier game with Fairfield. I think they will win 2 out of 3, dropping the Upstate challenge game to Cuse. After that their road doesn't get any easier with games against PSU, UMass, St. John's, Canisius, Loyola and they finish up with a tough Cornell team. I don't think they will win all of those games but I must say I think they have a good shot against PSU, UMass and Loyola. Hobart should certainly beat Canisius and I like them over in St. John's in a one or two goal win at this point in the season. I think they will struggle with Cornell almost as much as I think they will struggle with Cuse. A lot of lacrosse is left to play but these next 3 games will determine what people think of Hobart. Win one, and people will bash you. Win 2 and people will get what they expect. Win all 3? people will be talking potential NC. Regardless of what happens, it is nice to see Hobart up in the top division and doing well instead of in Division 3 where they would be the top dog along with Salisbury.

PotD - Ghitelman Save for UVA!

Interesting but nice save by the UVA keeper against Cornell.

PotD - I got a disease and the only prescription is more Neon.

Easily the loudest lax stick out there. the Neon Hofstra Special redefining style on LI since 2009.

Weekend Review III

What a weekend! Good games and upsets all acrosse the Divisions. Some teams' questions were answered, while others' questions are just coming up.

Division 1 had some upsets but on Sunday Maryland rebounded with a solid win over Bryant after losing to UMBC for the 3rd straight time on Saturday. Nice to see a Division 1 team play back to back games and win the second one. UMBC just has Maryland's number, I guess. Again Maryland's offense was stagnant even though it is loaded with talent. Catalino and Yeatman are assets but can be liabilities as well as they tend to slow it down and make UMD a little one dimensional.

Brown beat Umass and is looking pretty good now with Jordan Burke leading the way in goal. I was surprised to see Duke knock off UNC as I thought this was UNC's year. Billy Bitter was contained [to some degree] and he is clearly the guy who needs to initiate and get things rolling if UNC is going to thrive. Hobart bested Gtown by 7 goals and is proving to be something of a Cinderella story considering they were a D3 program for a couple days last year. Look for Hobart to keep rolling because this is the season they need to make a statement to their alums and college board of trustees. Cuse beat the Hop in a relatively close one. Cuse keeps rolling while Hopkins looks better every time I see them. At first they seemed lost but have really been improving as a team and finding new guys to fill roles. Hofstra looked second-rate against Hopkins last week but really impressed with a hard-fought win against the Princeton Tigers. It was Princeton's first loss of the season but they certainly have the guns to compete with Cornell and Brown for the Ivy League title.

Division 2 is crazy this year. NYIT looks to be solid along with Post and LeMoyne but beyond that teams are all playing close games, losing to teams they shouldn't and then beating teams they shouldn't. shouldn't in this case means pretty much nothing so what I'm really saying is... the division is too close to call right now and other than the top 3-4 nothing is certain. Merrimack has only played one game where they beat Dowling 11-8. Mercyhurst lost to Lemoyne and it wasn't really close. LeMoyne-Post will tell us a lot next week.

Division 3 was a roller coaster this weekend. Bowdoin is 2-0 and looks good after beating Wesleyan last week and Trinity this week. Cortland and Salisbury look like clear 1 and 2 although Endicott and Stevenson have to be considered for the 2 spot at least. Gburg continues to disappoint with a loss to Haverford which is no cupcake game but one the Bullets in past years would be expected to win. Denison looks to prove the NCAC belongs with a win over Lburg. Roanoke, Tufts and Ithaca are undefeated, as-is W&L, WAC has one loss and Cabrini also has one loss. One of these teams will do big things and the others may fall by the wayside but who will emerge as a true contender for a NC won't emerge for a couple weeks yet. All of the doors are still open in D3 and almost anyone in the top 10 has a chance to dethrone SU... they just have to bring their A game.

Ithaca College

Great article on Ithaca:

http://www.ithaca.edu/icview/3903/

Currently, the Bombers are 5-0 and ranked in most pollster's top 10 in either the USILA or laxpower D3 polls.

Coach Long is a legendary coach at the D3 level without ever winning a National Championship and the players that have come through Ithaca are of the highest caliber both on and off the field.

PotD - Back in the Day Gait Bros.

Week review, Weekend Preview all in one!

UNC, Notre Dame and Georgetown all won this week. Bucknell put up a decent fight against ND after getting dominated by Hobart. The Statesmen clearly have some talent but will need to keep winning for their stock to improve further. Vermont rebounded to beat Bellarmine after losing to UVA and they didn't even have to change their mascot's name!

Mel McKee and Assumption picked up their first win of their career and season respectively over Division 3 MIT. MIT offers more varsity NCAA sports than any other college in the country which is an interesting tidbit considering their top flight academic standing. The brains at MIT put NESCAC, Centennial and ODAC brains to shame.

Ithaca lost to MCLA Chapman, barely beat Whittier and now barely beat Drew. I expect the Bombers to get BLOWN OUT by Cortland when they meet. It could get ugly in this rivalry game.

Bates stuck with Middlebury last weekend til the end and then went on to lose to WNEC 6-4 this week. They won't win the NESCAC; heck, they might not even win a game in the NESCAC but it shows that the talent from top to bottom in that conference is very even and no win comes easy.

Colorado State beat Florida handily in MCLA action without Coach Flip Naumberg who has taken what is believed to be a temporary leave from the team. Are the Rams getting back to their top level form? The easy home win over UF leads me to believe they are.

Some games to look out for this weekend are: Kenyon v. Stevens and Conn College v. McDaniel. Both of these games will be played at neutral sites. Dickinson v. Noke could be a good game, as could Cabrini v. Hampden-Sydney. Cortland Clarkson could be good although I bet Cortland wins by at least 6. Wesleyan v. Middlebury should be a GREAT NESCAC match-up. The birds really need this one even though it is early. W&L plays F&M in the ampersand tilt of the week. If the Generals win big, they could be a top 10 team.

On the Division 1/2 side of things: Hobart v. Georgetown will be huge for whoever takes that one. My gut says Georgetown but it seems like that program is always ready to lose just when you start to believe in them. Princeton looks to keep rolling against Hofstra, Umass takes on Brown for a public-private, Mass-RI brawl. UMD v. UMBC should be a great intrastate-school game with both teams looking to impress. Another match-up within the same state is UNC-Duke. Any game between these two NC schools is guaranteed to get heated and UNC is clearly on the upswing as Duke tries to find some stability and direction. UNC has not done well in the ACC for the past couple of years and you just know they would love to get a win over the Dukies to prove they have arrived back on the contender scene.

Jeff Snider to Recover

Geoff Snider suffered a broken trachea... yes, a BROKEN TRACHEA in a recent NLL game and was hospitalized for 3 days at the conclusion of the team's plane ride to Portland where their next game was taking place.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/nll/2008-09/news/031209_snider

Luckily, it looks like Snider will make a full recovery. He was injured setting a pick and didn't think much of the imjury at first. This serves as a lesson to every lacrosse player out there who refuses treatment and shrugs injuries off... DON'T! you might not seem like as much of a tough guy, but it also might save your life.

Wednesday recap!

Here is a little midweek food for thought:

-OWU looks like the class of the NCAC this year but they just lost to Gettysburg who lost to Stevenson and Cortland last week. I'm not a huge fan of comparative scoring but this does lead me to believe that there will be outrage if 3 NCAC teams make the tourney and deserving others are left out. The NCAC is good lacrosse but clearly not a conference putting forth teams in contention for the NC. Dickinson beat Kenyon by 1 and Dickinson isn't even on most people's Centennial radar.

-Bryant has shown that they have really arrived on the D1 lax scene. They lost to Loyola this week but kept it competitive. Any time you can play a top 20 team to a 15-11 loss in your first year is a good sign. Pressler will stick around for a while and Greer only went 2g, 1a so the future looks bright for the Bulldogs.

-Albany beat Umass yesterday. The Danes are up and down this year as are the Minutemen. Umass could put together a run at the end on the back of Connolly but even with the win yesterday, I still think Albany is a year away at least.

-UVA kept rolling as they easily bested the Catamounts of Vermont. UVA is clearly a top contender but what is going on with Ryan Curtis' UVM squad and its small roster? 20-something guys won't get you wins at the Division One level. As stupid as this may sound, I believe the problems start with their mascot. Question: what is the only difference between a catamount and a cougar? Answer: the prior is the mascot for Universitas Viridis Montis, the latter is not. Now is it silly to have two names for one cat?

side note: my uncle used to skate around the rink at intermission for UVM hockey games wearing the old Cat suit. Back then he was called Charlie, now they call him Rally. The latter is a step down considering it isn't even an alliteration. Also Rally connotes that the team is already losing. Is that really the attitude you want, UVM? Both of my parents went there so I would desperately love to see them succeed.

GREAT Division 3 highlights

check out the video lax.com loaded up from the Gburg-Cortland game last weekend:
http://www.lax.com/story.phtml?story=2250
some really good highlights from a great early season North-South match-up.

Cortland looks like they have some strong dodgers and finishers. Both teams played physical although both teams can be seen swinging at sticks instead of taking the body on numerous goal scoring opportunities, granted it is only a highlight reel.

PotD - at least it isn't snow?

The Pacific NW is just wonderful this time of year! Mercer Island HS lacrosse practice pictured above. They seem accustomed to the rain!

PotD - New Nike Jerseys

Wesleyan [top] and Skidmore [bottom] both have new away jerseys by Nike in 2009 and both programs are now rocking Brine helmets. Wesleyan is back in black after a few years with red jerseys.

NLL all star weekend

The NLL all-star game took place over the weekend in Denver.
The players were introduced to the roar of some motorcycles and flame throwers, a geared out Dan Dawson jumped into a hot tub with some scantily clad blondes during the 3rd period, Mark Steenhuis had 13 points [7g, 6a] to capture his 3rd all-star MVP and supposedly a lacrosse game was played.

OUTRAGE!

Read this: http://www.laxmagazine.com/college_men/club/2008-09/news/022009_asu

then read this: http://deadspin.com/5166103/florida-state-punished-for-cheating-scandal-but-not-really

so basically these schools and by extension, the NCAA are saying:

a)wrongs perpetrated by college students [just the kids] are worse than wrongs by YOUR OWN ATHLETIC DEPT/STAFF[PAID ADULTS, KIDS AND COACHES!].

b)drinking alcohol is bad, even though [at 21 years of age] it is legal.

c)cheating is kind of bad but really not that bad. next time, just don't get caught! tsk, tsk, slap on the wrist.

d)The NCAA has no teeth and is a slave to the money-earning sports and "academic" institutions.

So... WOW. I am appalled at FSU, the NCAA and Division 1 sports in general. The point of college is academics. PERIOD. Therefore, when serious academic violations are reported the response should be swift and meaningful, unlike what happened with FSU. These "students" should be suspended or even expelled and the tutors, coaches and administrators should be fired. Conduct violations [like what happened at ASU] are embarrassing for the University and the students involved and are quickly remedied by the suspension of the team but cheating scandals are far worse because they bring in to question why the students-athletes are even called students in the first place.

Duke's lacrosse season was cancelled by the school because of an off-campus party and allegations that in the end proved to be false. ASU's season was cancelled due to hazing and drinking. If this thinking continues logically, FSU's entire athletics department should be suspended for a year because the problems there are clearly systematic and widespread, yet the school did very little on top of the pathetic NCAA penalties.

weekend review II

Maryland won. Catalino scored 4 goals but I still think he slows down their offense and the game and is a pretty boring player to watch. He also made some questionable hits, of course he is also just bigger than everyone else so I could just be feeling bad for them.

Cornell lost as I thought they would but were competitive. UVA is just too deep this year for many to run with.

Hopkins impressed with their win over Hofstra. Defensively they looked comfortable and were playing like a team. Hofstra just didn't bring it to the same level. Both Gvozden brothers looked pretty good in goal for both teams. Older Brother, Michael, was a difference maker.

Umass took out Harvard. Lynchburg knocked of Cabrini in a surprise win. Lburg could be the class of the ODAC although W&L looks to be a challenger this year and Roanoke is off to a quick start. The top of this conference and the top of the CAC is looking even better than the Centennial or the NESCAC.

Cortland proved they are the real deal with a big win on LI against Gburg. the Bullets keep slipping and although I believe they are a top 20 team, they have a lot to prove. Bowdoin took the one goal win over Wesleyan with less than 30 seconds left in a 4-3 barn burner.

MCLA Chapman bested D3 Ithaca by a score of 14-11. I think this score pretty much proves Chapman could easily play at the top of Division 3 lacrosse. I would go out there and play lax in Cali if I could!

BYU topped FSU... I wish both of these schools would add men's lacrosse to their NCAA offered sports. When that happens, lacrosse will be unstoppable but in the meantime, it is great to see the club guys balling at a really high level and filling the gap until those schools take up the mantle of lacrosse themselves.

PotDs - NYC spring lax

A shot of the Sideline for Team Southampton, some photo "art", me almost killing a teammate from Hobart and me getting ready to shoot wide right.

Cornell-UVA

The Cornell-UVA match-up is probably the premier game of the weekend, at least according to the rankings. Max Seibald is a monster out on the field and is my early pick for player of the year. He just does things others can't, elevates his teammates and provides that spark when his team needs it. He plays at 100% all the time but is aided by less heralded players like John Glynn. Glynn does a great job on face offs and is a threat to score as well. He is more than just a FOGO. Do I think this will be enough for CU to knock off UVA? No. UVA is loaded on offense and defense with athletes and blue chip players all over the place. They place well together and along with Cuse are the heavy favorites to win the NC this year.

http://cornellsun.com/section/sports/content/2009/03/06/men%E2%80%99s-lacrosse-against-top-ranked-virginia

Hofstra-Hopkins looks like a good game to see which of these teams is for real and which is just pretending. I like the LI crew in this one. I also think the "Spirit of Massachusetts is the Spirit of America" Bowl featuring UMass and Harvard will be a telling game between two top 20 teams.

On the D3 side of things Cabrini-Lburg should be a good game. I don't think Lynchburg is as bad as some people thought they were after they destroyed Colorado College. I do think Cabrini is the real deal and will win by 3-5 goals. Gburg-Cortland on LI should be a great game in warm weather. Gburg has a lot to prove after getting destroyed by Stevenson. I like Cortland by a few. Wesleyan-Bowdoin should be a good game as well up in Maine. If it were 20 degrees colder the edge would go to Bowdoin but with the warm temps predicted I have to give Wesleyan a one-goal edge in this early, but important NESCAC tilt.

PotD - Ephmen dye? shameful.

Lavender [yeah I dyed my stick lavender, what of it?] Gait Triton with a disintegrating checker pattern, neon yellow mesh, yellow sidewalls and all-white shooters. You would think some hotshot from Williams, Nazareth, Albany or Whittier had done up this bad boy but no, it was an old laxrat from the Red & Black of Wesleyan. I'm an equal opportunity dye-ist.