The Confidential is proud to add a new link to the sidebar: Laxpower.com. After last week’s very popular article regarding the future of lacrosse, the Confidential stumbled on this website. It has just about everything a lacrosse fan could want.
By now, we have all heard that Johns Hopkins is going to the Big 10. Some folks are really happy, such as the Frank the Tank faithful. As they should be. As a preface, there should be no illusion that this is a disaster for the ACC. This is not the conference apocalypse. There should not be any wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But it is kind of bad news, right?
Here is why.
ESPN is reporting, and it now seems all over the Internet, that Johns Hopkins will be joining the Big 10 as an associate member. The Confidential had advocated for JHU to join, so this is a disappointment. Props to the Big 10 for getting it done. This is a win-win for both the B1G and JHU.
For 2015, the Big 10 lacrosse teams will be JHU, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. That is a reasonable conference membership. Not the uber-conference that the ACC would have been with JHU, but good enough. And it might be better for lacrosse as a whole for this relationship to move forward.
This leaves a dilemma for the ACC. Where do they go for the 6th conference member? Do they even need one? Let us know what you think.
After quickly trailing 5-0 and being held scoreless in the first quarter, the #7 Duke Blue Devils gave the ACC another championship in lacrosse by thoroughly dismantling the #1 seeded Syracuse Orange in a 16-10 romp on Memorial Day. It’s the Second Championship in Duke’s history and could be the first of many for years to come.
The game’s Most Outstanding Player was the ACC Defensive Player of the year, Brendon Fowler, who despite some early violations, dominated the face-offs all afternoon (20 face-off wins), and gave Duke a huge offensive advantage. Read more…
And the good news just keeps coming for the Tar Heels, as the North Carolina Women’s Lacrosse team defeated the previously undefeated Maryland Terrapins in 3OT Sunday night for program’s first NCAA National Championship. Sammy Jo Tracy scored the deciding goal just 31 seconds into triple-overtime to give North Carolina the 13-12 advantage and end the game against their longtime ACC rival.
Go ahead, call it a comeback. For the second consecutive week, the Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse team needed last minute heroics to overcome certain defeat against Yale and Denver, respectively. With their 9-8 win over the Denver Pioneers, the Orange will square off against future conference-mate, Duke, in the NCAA Division I Championship game on Monday. Yet for over 55 minutes on Saturday, it seemed that Denver fans’ Rocky Mountain High would continue on, instead it all came crashing down. Read more…
The Duke Blue Devils’ offense delivered, and the defense held on to defeat Cornell in Philadelphia on Saturday. Duke will advance to the final game on Monday to take on the winner of Syracuse and Denver. Read more…
On Saturday, the Duke Blue Devils will take on the red-hot Big Red of Cornell en route to the NCAA Championship game on Memorial Day. This has all the makings of being a high scoring, high flying game. With both teams playing extremely well as of late; it’s almost impossible to predict the winner. Read more…
As much as I fear the worst for the Orange come the NCAA hoops tournament, the opposite is true for lacrosse. For the first time since 2009 Syracuse returns to the Final Four on Memorial Day weekend. This holiday has essentially been a Syracuse holiday. With the growth of lacrosse across the country and schools adding it, the Orange can’t expect to dominate like it used to, so it’s nice to still be at the front of the pack. The Orange advanced with another one goal victory over Yale yesterday to save the senior class from not having been to a Final Four.
Regardless if you are a Duke fan, or a Notre Dame fan, Lacrosse fans in general were treated to a fantastic quarterfinal game that embodied what men’s lacrosse truly should be.
It was a physical game with countless hard hits, plenty of scores on both sides to keep the game tight, and an incredible effort right down to the final ticks of the clock. There is no love lost between this growing rivalry and Notre Dame was looking to avenge being knocked out of the tournament by Duke in 2 of the last 3 years. Read more…
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