Final Four

0:50 into the 2nd half, it's Duke 11, Md 3 and was 10-3 at the half. At least we were 4-3 at the half. I feel better . Duke stil doing everything virtually perfectly.

18-9 final, we did better than Md and Duke is on a crazy roll

Hopkins and UVA in a weather delay apparently with 4:45 in the 4th and UVA leading 7-6.

hopkins wins it in ot, 9-8. #37 scored the game winner.

Looks like it was a roaring finish as UVA scored to go ahead 8-7 with 12 seconds left in the 4th and Hopkins tied it with 1.6 seconds left in regulation.

Both games were unbelievable. Duke was scary good. during the second game, the opinion around me was that neither UVA nor Hopkins would be able to beat Duke if they played the way they did in a 2-1 (JHU) first half. It was sloppy. The second half was better. Hopkins capitalized on a non-releasable man up at the very end of the first half to score two quick goals to start the second, then got a third to go up 5-1. UVA cut it to 5-3 with a man-down goal, and looked like they might get the momentum, but Hopkins scored again to make it 6-3. At the start of the 4th, the weather got crazy- it was so windy, trash was whipping all over the field, and the rain was blowing sideways. I thought I was in the Crescent for a minute UVA came out strong, and scored 4 goals to take a 7-6 lead. Then there was a thunder and lightning delay. After that, well, it was just sheer chaos. Hopkins scored, then UVA w/12 seconds left, then Hopkins with 1 second to tie it up. Its a shame UVA lost- their goalie stood on his head to keep them in it at times, and was absolutely the best performance i have ever seen.

I can't believe this is happening.

I never thought I'd ever have to do this, in any sport.

It's unnatural.

Up is down.

Left is right.

But at least I know I'm not alone. Tomorrow at noon, I will join thousands -- perhaps millions -- of Americans...

...as we do something that violates our most cherished ideals.

We will pay our hard-earned money.

Some of us will drive for hours...

...to root for...

Duke.

[There, I said it.]

keeping in mind that i really don't follow lacrosse (i'd catch the last few minutes of the finals as i woke up on the Left coast), i know which teams are there perennial powerhouses, but i don't have grasp on how they are perceived by the fans......

from Hillel's comments it sounds like johns hopkins is the lacrosse equivalent to hockey's michigan and minnesota. root against them at all costs. or is it a case of rooting for the team that knocked out your team more?. since lacrosse is the only sport that jhu is dI in, in a way i thought it was cool that they are always considered one of the best.

ironically, my brother was at the semi-finals on saturday. one of his buddies is a syracuse alum and a huge lacrosse fan... so part of their guys only weekend was a trip to philly for the lacrosse semis.

8-8 going to the 4th.

Hopkins won 9-8 for those of you who were waiting for a final update.

[Q]Rita Wrote:

from Hillel's comments it sounds like johns hopkins is the lacrosse equivalent to hockey's michigan and minnesota. root against them at all costs. or is it a case of rooting for the team that knocked out your team more?. since lacrosse is the only sport that jhu is dI in, in a way i thought it was cool that they are always considered one of the best.

[/q]

I've never thought of JHU as an evil empire, although I recognize they were a long-time rival of ours, back in the day. Especially with ex-CU head coach Pietralama now running the show at JHU. Nobody at Cornell was happy when he left but we all knew he would jump to JHU as soon as the job became available. Plus anyone who knows Kyle Harrison's story should find it hard to root against him.

Syracuse, however, comes to mind. Glad to see their semifinal streak end.

Agreed it's hard to think of Hopkins as an evil empire anymore, but I still don't like 'em. I was rooting for Duke.

We would've all felt better if Duke had won and won big so we could say it just as easily could have been Cornell in the final four and maybe in the title game had we taken a different seeding path. Still, Hopkins is a class program, and Hopkins followed our lead in shutting down Duke in the final quarter without suffering our problem of getting blown out in the third quarter. For an unbeaten team, Hopkins seemed quite beatable. It just never happened.

For Duke, there's going to be a next year. For Hopkins and Cornell, we'll have to see. But first, of course, there's hockey season. LGR!