The Michigan Wolverines Are A Team Of Destiny, And Everything Else You Missed In The Opening Round Of The NCAA Lacrosse Tournament
Jaime Crawford. Getty Images.When the University of Michigan lacrosse program made the jump from club to NCAA D1 in 2012, plenty of lacrosse fans just assumed they'd take the sport over within a few years. It's a sick school with a massive name and unbelievable facilities. You figured they'd be able to bring in any recruit they wanted and it would only be a matter of time before they were a perennial lock for Championship Weekend.
And then…well then it just never happened. 10 seasons later and Michigan never really got themselves going. And the longer it went on, the harder it would get to create a name for themselves other than a door mat for the rest of the Big Ten.
The whole world was ready to write Michigan lacrosse off. Michigan lacrosse ain't write back though.
Already this year Michigan beat the 2022 National Champion Maryland in the regular season (on Maryland's senior day, no less). That was the biggest win in program history until they beat Penn State in the Big Ten Semifinals. That was the biggest win in program history until they went on to beat Maryland again in the Big Ten Championship game to clinch their spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. That was the biggest win in program history until the Wolverines got a chance to play their first tournament game ever, and all they did was go out there and knock off the 2022 National Runner-Up Cornell in overtime. If the writers in Hollywood weren't on strike right now I'd tell them to start writing the movie script now.
Two teams played for a National title in 2022. Michigan went a combined 3-0 against them this season. This team has some serious juice.
Obviously it doesn't get any easier for Michigan from here. If they want a trip to the Final Four, they need to go through the #1 seed Duke in the quarterfinals this Saturday. But I know a Team of Destiny when I see one. And right now Michigan is shaking that ass like Cinderalla at the ball trying to land her some of that Prince Charming pipe.
Michigan vs Cornell was the only game from the weekend that went to overtime, but it wasn't the only one that came down to the final possession. Let's talk about some other great games from the first round.
Army 16, #4 Maryland 15
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The Troops!
In hindsight this feels like a perfect storm of Army being ranked a little lower than they should have been, and Maryland ranked a little higher than they should have been. Instead of a 13 vs 4 upset, this should have been more of an 11 vs 6. Still not great for the Terps, but not quite as shocking as it seemed. Because Army has been one of the more constantly solid teams all year. They just never got a massive win to boost their resume since their schedule wasn't great. Down year for the Patriot League will do that to you. Meanwhile, Maryland was about as up and down as you could be this year. A win against Virginia was great, but losses to Loyola and (at the time) Michigan made you realize this wasn't anything like the Maryland teams we were used to over the past few years.
Army got out to a big lead in the first quarter, Maryland had enough talent to tie the game back up, but not enough to put Army away for good. And once Army got through the storm of Maryland coming back, Army was able to grind out the win because that's what they are. A bunch of grinders.
And yes, Army certainly benefited from one of the biggest joke calls in lacrosse history when this goal was waived off due to a "goal mouth violation".
But Maryland head coach John Tillman built up enough bad karma throughout the season to have a call like that go against him in a huge moment. All is fair.
#1 Duke 12, Delaware 11
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There were quite a few games this weekend that ended up being a tale of two halves. In the first half of this game, Delaware showed everyone exactly why they were able to knock off #2 Georgetown in the opening round of last year's tournament. This Delaware team is a big time problem for high seeded teams. Hands down the biggest pain in the ass team there ever was. Because they might not always have the regular season resume to compete with the high seeds, but they sure as shit have the talent. This Delaware team has plenty of pro talent on the roster, and I'd argue they had 3 of the best 6 players in this game.
But Duke is Duke for a reason. Even when a team can hold Brennan O'Neill to just one goal in a game, that means that guys like Dyson Williams and Andrew McAdorey are going to pop off for 3 each of their own. They are too deep. They are too loaded. And Delaware needed to be up by a helluva lot more than just 3 goals at halftime if they wanted to bury any chance of Duke coming back.
#5 Penn State 13, Princeton 12
I'll tell you what--it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend for the Ivy League. It all got going with Yale blowing an 8-3 halftime lead to Georgetown on Saturday and eventually losing that shootout of a game 19-17. Then obviously we already talked about Cornell losing in overtime to Michigan on Sunday afternoon. After that, it all came down to the 3rd and final Ivy team in the tournament. The 2023 Ivy League Champion Princeton Tigers. And when Princeton was up 7-1 in the 2nd quarter, it looked like the conference was avenged. Avenge of the Nerds.
But Coach Tambroni is a former Ivy League guy himself, and now Penn State gets to benefit from that big brain of his. So once Penn State was able to catch their balance after getting their dicks kicked in a bit by Princeton, they junked it up into a zone and the defense + goaltender Jack Fracyon were able to keep the Tiger offense in check for long enough for the offense to do their thing and come out with the win.
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Brutal weekend for nerds. I guess they spent a little too much time studying for finals week than they did on the scouting report.
Georgetown 19, Yale 17
I already mentioned that Yale blew an 8-3 halftime lead in this game, but what a day out of Tucker Dordevic. 6 goals to his name, and I'd say that was a huge narrative game for everybody involved at Georgetown. Dordevic had a slow start to the season after transferring to Syracuse, but did enough in Big East play to be named a Tewaaraton Finalist this year. But I don't think enough people actually watched Big East lacrosse this year since it cost like $150 to stream the games this season. So Tucker Dordevic needed to have a signature game on a nationally televised broadcast for everyone to believe the hype, and Georgetown needed to not get upset in the first round of the tournament for the 2nd straight year for people to stop calling them frauds. We saw both of those things happen in this comeback for the Hoyas.
The Shit Pumpings
Virginia spanked Richmond 17-8 in the grossest weather imaginable on a soaking wet field. Notre Dame dismantled Utah 20-7 and the game was over within the first 5 minutes. And Johns Hopkins pecker slapped Bryant 22-8.
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