Lacrosse Weekend: NLL, MLL, and College

National Lacrosse League's Regular Season Finales

The National Lacrosse League's regular season ended on Saturday as final seeding for the playoffs were set. The Edmonton Rush, the number one team in the league, defeated the Vancouver Stealth 10-5 to end the season with a 16-2 record. The Rush, who started the season 14-0, earned a first round bye and home court advantage throughout the Champion's Cup playoffs. 

The Rush will face the winner of the first round matchup between the Calgary Roughnecks and the Colorado Mammoth. Roughnecks finished the season with a 14-8 victory over Vancouver, while the Mammoth had a come-from-behind win over the Philadelphia Wings in Philly. This match-up will be played in Calgary because the Roughnecks has the better record.

Cody Jamieson
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The best team in the East is the current holder of the Champion's Cup, the Rochester Knighthawks. The Knighthawks, led by the league leader in points Cody Jamieson, defeated the Buffalo Bandits 16-14 in front of 19,070 fans in Buffalo on Saturday. The 19,070 fans is tied for the most fans at a regular season game. With the win, the Knighthawks finish the season 14-4 and have won nine of their last ten games. While the Knighthawks have been on fire since the beginning of March, the Bandits have gone cold. They have lost their final eight games to end the season 8-10 and now have to travel to Toronto for their first round matchup with the Rock. The Rock won their final regular season game 8-6 against the Minnesota Swarm. 

Major League Lacrosse's FaceOff Weekend

Rob Pannell
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Eight of the MLL's ten teams played a game during opening weekend, called FaceOff Weekend. The new team to the league, the Florida Launch, faced off with the Denver Outlaws at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Florida. The first half was all Outlaws and they led 11-1 at half time. The Launch had a mini comeback in the second half, but still lost 14-10. With the win, the Outlaws' regular season winning streak was extended to 21 games. The last time they lost a game in the regular season was in July of 2012. Yet, Denver has never won a MLL Championship. The Ohio Machine defeat the Charlotte Hounds 15-8 in Charlotte. Machine netminder Scott Rodgers had 23 saves in the win. The defending champion Chesapeake Bayhawks lost to the Boston Cannons 15-9. Kevin Buchanan scored seven goals for the Cannons. In the final game of the weekend, the New York Lizards defeated the Rochester Rattlers 18-15. Rob Pannell scored six goals for the Lizards, five of them unassisted. 

ACC Tournament Final

Matt Kavanagh
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The Syracuse Orange (#4 in the Inside Lacrosse Poll/#4 in the Coaches Poll) went head-to-head with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (#9/#9) in the ACC Tournament Final. This is both school first season in the ACC. In the semi-finals, #3 seeded Syracuse defeated #2 seeded Duke 16-15 in a rematch of last year's National Championship, which the Blue Devils won. Billy Ward scored the game-tying goal for the Orange with fifteen seconds left and Dylan Donahue followed that up with a goal with a second left to win it for the Orange. Notre Dame, seeded fourth in the tournament, also scored a game winning goal in the closing seconds. Matt Kavanagh scored the game-winning-goal with less than seven seconds left to put the Irish up 6-5 and clinch a spot in the final. 

The Final was just as thrilling as the two semi-final games. At the half, Notre Dame and Syracuse were all tied up at seven. However, the Fighting Irish came out of the half hot, scoring seven goals in the third quarter and only giving up two goals to take a 14-9 lead. Six minutes into the fourth quarter, the Fighting Irish seemed to be on their way to victory as they had a 15-10 lead. But, the Orange began to fight back. When Scott Loy scored with 2:02 remaining, the Notre Dame lead was down to one. Notre Dame won the ensuing face-off, but Dominic Lamolinara, who came on at the start of the fourth, saved a point blank shot off of his face mask. Syracuse got the ball and went on the attack. The Orange could not get the ball in the net as Conor Kelly made a great save with a few seconds left to seal the deal for the Irish. Kavanagh was MVP of the Tournament. 

Patriot League Final

Jack Runkel
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The Loyola Greyhounds (#1/#1) went up against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (#18/#18) in the Patriot League Championship Game. Loyola defeated Colgate 12-6 in the semi-final, while Lehigh defeated Army 12-11 in their semi-final game. Loyola won the game handily, 17-6, and extended their winning streak to fourteen games. Lehigh struck first, but Loyola, whose only loss this year came at the hands of Virginia in OT, scored six consecutive goals and was up 7-3 at half time. The second half was all Greyhounds, as they scored nine goals to the Mountiain Hawks four. When the horn sounded, Loyola won 16-7. Greyhound goalie Jack Runkel made fifteen saves and was named Patriot League Tournament MVP.

NCAA Lacrosse Championships

The NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championships is looking to be excellent this year. All four teams not only have outstanding players, but all have a formidable chance of winning. The number one seed, Syracuse, is in. So is the four seed Denver and the seventh seeded North Carolina. Rounding out the final four is the unseeded Cornell. The semifinals will take place on May 25th, and the national championship on the 27th. On the 26th, the Division II Championship between Mercyhurst and Le Moyne and the Division III Championship featuring Rochester Institute and Stevenson. The Division I semi's are Syracuse-Denver and Cornell-Duke.

Rob Pannell
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Cornell is my favorite to win it all. They have a lot of things going for them. Even though they were unranked in the tournament, they went 12-3 in the regular season. That did, however,  include a loss to fellow semi-finalist Syracuse. In the tournament, there has been no one better. In the first round against a good Maryland team, they won easily by the score of 16-8. Then, in the quarters, they destroyed the number three seeded Ohio State, 16-6. This should not be a surprise. Cornell has arguably the best player in the nation in Rob Pannell. Pannell, an attack, was an All-American in 2010 and 2011. He on track to return to the list in 2012, but had a season-ending injury in the second game of the season. This season, he has come back in a big way. Pannell's 42 goals, 53 assists, 95 points, and 5.59 points per game place him. His partner is fellow attacer Steve Mock. Mock has 59 goals on the season to lead the nation. In the game vs. Ohio State, the Big Red showed their power. Pannell has two goals and six assists, while Mock had seven goals. The Big Red have the most offensive firepower in the tournament and will lead them to victory. 

Syracuse may be the number one team in the tournament, but I would not be so confident about them winning the championship. Of the four teams left standing, their team offense is the only one outside of the top five. Their team defense is the best of the four, but not by much. They have had many close calls this season, and a few tough losses. They needed to dominate more to gain my confidence. They may be a good team, but they will have a very tough time in the semi's and, possibly the championship game.

Denver is a good team that always play very hard. Five of their games in the regular season went into overtime. In those games they are 3-2. Their offense is led by Attacker Eric Law and Midfielder Wesley Berg. Law has 40 goals and 25 assists on a .526 shooting percentage. Berg was the team's leading goal scorer and second leading scorer in the nation with 56 goals.  Denver played very tough competition in the first two rounds so far. They beat a very good offensive team in Albany, 19-14, and an always good North Carolina squad, 12-11. Their schedule will have them mentally prepared to take on Syracuse.

Jordan Wolf
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Duke is looking to redeem it's self after loosing in the final four last season to Maryland. They have one of the best player in the nation in Attacker Jordan Wolf. The junior has led the third best offensive team in the nation with 49 goals and 25 assists. He also averages 2.58 goals per game. It is not just Wolf on the offense. Josh Dionne, David Lawson, Case Matheis, Josh Offit, and Jake Tripecka all have 40+ points on the year. The Blue Devils ride to the semi's has not been easy. They faced defending champion Loyola (MD) and beat them 12-11 in double overtime. Then, they faced the number two seed Notre Dame and won 12-11.