Men's Lax Tournament 2024

[Swampy]

Georgetown beats Villanova in a wild Big East championship game, 11-10 OT.

Big Red's hopes have dodged the first of 3 bullets.

We're all Pennsylvanians now!

Michigan over PSU 16-4. We're all in mourning now. ::pain:: ::bang::

[mike1960]

Georgetown beats Villanova in a wild Big East championship game, 11-10 OT.

Big Red's hopes have dodged the first of 3 bullets.

We're all Pennsylvanians now!

Michigan over PSU 16-4. We're all in mourning now. ::pain:: ::bang::

How many ways can Tambroni screw us over this year?

[arugula]

We screwed ourselves over. Unlike hockey at least we blew it by playing a strong schedule. Harder to be too upset  about some of the lacrosse losses versus hockey losing to Colgate etc.  

Funny that Kirst is the Award candidate when Long is the most important player.

If my math is right is that 100 total seasons between hockey and lacrosse of being national contenders and never winning. Random chance would suggest better.  Frustrating.

[BearLover]

We screwed ourselves over. Unlike hockey at least we blew it by playing a strong schedule. Harder to be too upset  about some of the lacrosse losses versus hockey losing to Colgate etc.  

Funny that Kirst is the Award candidate when Long is the most important player.

If my math is right is that 100 total seasons between hockey and lacrosse of being national contenders and never winning. Random chance would suggest better.  Frustrating.

We had an easy clear and likely goal with under a minute to go vs ND, but our player evidently didn't see it so we blew the game against the #1 team in the country, which ultimately cost us an NCAA bid. But also, the refs blew a late call that game, and also jobbed Cornell in the Denver game. Not to mention all the injuries. Some of it was under our control, a lot of it wasn't.

Honestly, losing on the field, even if it's to injuries and the refs, will never be anywhere close to as frustrating as having entire seasons canceled in 2020 and 2021.

[upprdeck]

Mary getting killed by PSU and then PSU getting killed by Mich

[MattShaf]

The entirety of Big Ten Lacrosse just disgusts me. Are there really going to be four Big Ten teams (JHU, PSU, U of M and Maryland) in the NCAA tournament?

[mike1960]

We screwed ourselves over. Unlike hockey at least we blew it by playing a strong schedule. Harder to be too upset  about some of the lacrosse losses versus hockey losing to Colgate etc.  

Funny that Kirst is the Award candidate when Long is the most important player.

If my math is right is that 100 total seasons between hockey and lacrosse of being national contenders and never winning. Random chance would suggest better.  Frustrating.

As Bill Parcells used to say, You are what your record says you are.

That's true, except for maybe the Denver game. I didn't see it, but it sounds like we were kind of screwed there. But the bottom line is that we need to beat Penn at least once, maybe twice, and we couldn't get it done. And those are games we have to win. Injuries were a major factor, but we couldn't find a way to score goals when we needed to.

In both Penn games, it seemed to me that Penn figured out a way to neutralize our offense and we didn't a plan B or plan C. There was an exception. In the Ivy tournament, we sent Kelleher to X against a short stick, had him drive to GLE, pass around the top, and then get a good shot on the other side. But we didn't go back to that, or try other things to make the defense scramble. The same is true with the EMO offense. We seem predictable.

But I'm not an expert. I'm sure the coaches know what they are doing. There's a lot more going on during the game that I don't see or understand. It's disappointing. Sport is like that, I guess.

[Ken711]

This will be a much different and much younger team next year without seniors in Krist and Long, among the 22 seniors and 5th year players they lose. Other players are going to have to step up, and maybe some freshman can win starting roles.

[upprdeck]

Kirst rumored to come back. Lets see.

The key part of the game were the 2 TWO min penalties we didnt even really generate shots down 2.

A few bad unforced turnovers in a game like that hurt as well.

[scoop85]

Kirst rumored to come back. Lets see.

The key part of the game were the 2 TWO min penalties we didnt even really generate shots down 2.

A few bad unforced turnovers in a game like that hurt as well.

Kirst and Long both coming back

[mike1960]

Kirst rumored to come back. Lets see.

The key part of the game were the 2 TWO min penalties we didnt even really generate shots down 2.

A few bad unforced turnovers in a game like that hurt as well.

Yes, those turnovers really hurt. Our guys must have felt the pressure. That happens.

Honestly, I thought we were (are) the better team, and I was certain we were going to win going away because Coach B would scheme out a winning attack. Instead, the game looked a lot like the previous game with us trying the same offense and getting the same results. I don't mean to be too critical. Penn has been a great defense all year, and they deserved to win. I hope they do well in the tournament.

[Swampy]

Kirst rumored to come back. Lets see.

The key part of the game were the 2 TWO min penalties we didnt even really generate shots down 2.

A few bad unforced turnovers in a game like that hurt as well.

Additionally, Penn scored 2 goals while our defense was ball-watching instead of sliding. And we let Firth (who's listed as "Attack" but has been playing offensive midfield) get caught downfield and having to play defense, where he was playing short-stick on short-stick and was beaten handily by the Penn player. (IMHO, Knust should have slid to back Firth up, although this may not have worked.) Against a team like Penn, we can't afford to give away 3 goals like this. (OK, maybe Firth being caught on the defensive side might have been unavoidable.)

Injuries hurt our defense all year, and next year we'll have to tighten things up. According to Inside Lacrosse, this year the defense loses Jack Follows, Walker Wallace, Billy Kephart, and Charlie Packard (although some of them didn't see much playing time, and they may have stepped out so they can play next year along with Kirst & Long; I don't know). But we have three defensive players coming in: Cooper Simpson, Beck Mahoney, and Michael Marshall. All are rated as 4-stars (but remember both Firth & Goldstein were only 4-* too). There's not much more information about Simpson and Marshall, except they're 6'0" 175# and 5'10" 180# respectively. But the Analysis of Mahoney says, "Mahoney has a beautiful combination of IQ, size, and athletic ability to play the field at a college ready level. Stretching opponents the full length of the field with perfect approach angles and pressure." Apparently he was also recruited by Notre Dame, Duke, North Carolina, Brown, and Dartmouth.

Still, IMHO, to reach our potential we will have to play better team defense than we did against Penn.

[CU77]

In both Penn games, it seemed to me that Penn figured out a way to neutralize our offense and we didn't a plan B or plan C. There was an exception. In the Ivy tournament, we sent Kelleher to X against a short stick, had him drive to GLE, pass around the top, and then get a good shot on the other side. But we didn't go back to that, or try other things to make the defense scramble. The same is true with the EMO offense. We seem predictable.

But I'm not an expert. I'm sure the coaches know what they are doing. There's a lot more going on during the game that I don't see or understand. It's disappointing. Sport is like that, I guess.

Yeah, I also didn't get why the ineffective O in game 1 was seemingly repeated in game 2. I would have had Goldstein dodging from X a lot more, and also more middie inverts from X against shorties (as you describe with Kelleher).

But no one pays me to coach D1 lax, for very good reasons!

[mike1960]

In both Penn games, it seemed to me that Penn figured out a way to neutralize our offense and we didn't a plan B or plan C. There was an exception. In the Ivy tournament, we sent Kelleher to X against a short stick, had him drive to GLE, pass around the top, and then get a good shot on the other side. But we didn't go back to that, or try other things to make the defense scramble. The same is true with the EMO offense. We seem predictable.

But I'm not an expert. I'm sure the coaches know what they are doing. There's a lot more going on during the game that I don't see or understand. It's disappointing. Sport is like that, I guess.

Yeah, I also didn't get why the ineffective O in game 1 was seemingly repeated in game 2. I would have had Goldstein dodging from X a lot more, and also more middie inverts from X against shorties (as you describe with Kelleher).

But no one pays me to coach D1 lax, for very good reasons!

Same here!

I still love the team. We'll be tough next year!

[mike1960]

Just saw the Princeton-Penn score. 18-11 Cats.

I will definitely watch this one to see how Princeton scored 18 on that defense. Earlier in the year, they scored 15 on them, the highest total until today against Penn.