Well that was an interesting week! All sorts of big games caused some chaos in the standings this week. Most conferences will be starting their conference play this week if they haven’t already. Let’s check in a few:
ACC: The ACC is 23-Denver in non-conference play. Things are about to get really interesting as these heavyweights gear up to fight for those four conference tournament seats. My personal opinion is that the ACC tournament was better than the NCAA final four last year, and this year might be a repeat. It’s the last weekend of April in Philadelphia, in case you want to clear your calendar, or book hotels or something…
Big East: Marquette is sitting on top? Really? As the only undefeated team in the conference, that is so. Denver is still the favorite without question, and Villanova’s been playing well too. Plenty of games remain, but this will be a tough conference tournament to get into, let alone win.
Ivy: The Ivies start league play in a big way this week. Brown and Yale are undefeated, while Harvard has only lost to Duke, Princeton to Maryland, and Cornell to Syracuse and Virginia. This will be another great conference tournament in a few weeks, and tough to win a spot into.
B1G: This conference isn’t having the start they’d like, sitting at a combined 19-15 so far this year. Maryland is looking like the team to beat while Hopkins is still working to right the ship. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State are all capable of stringing some wins together, but it will be tough going to oust the blue bloods. And then there’s poor Rutgers.
America East: Albany is struggling to start the year and Stony Brook is looking impressive. This conference is wide open. UMass-Lowell got their first ever program win over the weekend over fellow upstart NJIT. Binghamton also tallied their first win of the season down in Delaware.
Patriot: I don’t even know where to start here. They’ve already started their conference schedule and that hasn’t helped at all. Pretty much everyone can beat everyone, whether it’s in conference or out. If you try to make predictions for the Patriot league, you’re crazy.
Records and scores are including games from March 8.
T-1 Syracuse Record: 5-0 InLax Score: 108.86 Previous: 1
Syracuse needed a huge second half to win this week to come away with the win, but they still did and by eight points. Next up is a pivotal game against Hopkins. Why are they tied for first? Because.
T-1 North Carolina Record: 6-0 InLax Score: 118.13 Previous: 2
UNC is just destroying everyone in their path. It’s a coin toss right now to really say who is better between Syracuse and UNC. They both have very big games between now and then, but circle April 11 on your calendar as that’s when Syracuse visits Chapel Hill. Bryant is next up and it probably won’t go well for the Bulldogs.
3 Denver Record: 4-1 InLax Score: 57.04 Previous: 4
Denver had a stellar win over Notre Dame at home this weekend. They are 2-1 against the ACC this year which is very impressive. Hopefully the Pios can keep this up as three of their past four season have been ended by a current or former ACC team. THE Ohio State is up next.
4 Duke Record: 5-1 InLax Score: 85.14 Previous: 5
Duke is looking better and better each week, which is par for the course over the last few seasons. Myles Jones has no problem being the focal point of the offense. They had a very solid win over Loyola this week and Georgetown is up next.
5 Notre Dame Record: 3-0 InLax Score: 37.28 Previous: 3
They weren’t able to withstand the late rally by Zach Miller, I mean Denver, and lost the game in overtime. Three of their next four are conference games which will tell us just about everything we want to know about the Irish. They travel to Virginia first on Saturday.
6 Maryland Record: 4-1 InLax Score: 78.72 Previous: 9
After a dominating win over a very good Princeton team, the Terps are starting to overcome their rocky offseason.
7 Yale Record: 5-0 InLax Score: 72.03 Previous: 7
They pulled out a win over St. John’s in a snow globe that someone shook up midway through the game and then topped Fairfield by one. They host Cornell in a very important game on Saturday for both teams to start the Ivy slate.
8 Virginia Record: 4-1 InLax Score: 47.59 Previous: 8
Virginia held up to a late rally by Cornell to seal the win. James Pannell’s six goal, one assist day had to feel great against his older brother’s alma mater.
9 Marquette Record: 7-0 InLax Score: 65.33 Previous: 12
Marquette hasn’t had a very tough schedule by any means (Laxpower says 39th in SOS), but they are making the best of it. Georgetown will be a good test as they have played some good teams pretty closely so far.
10 Army Record: 5-2 InLax Score: 69.95 Previous: 6
Army likely spent the entire bus ride from Worcester to West Point staring at their sticks and figuring out how they want to restring them. As a team, they were among the best in terms of shooting percentage all year. Against Holy Cross, the starting attack of John Glesener, Cole Johnson, and Connor Cook shot 3-18 combined. Loyola’s up next.
11 Brown Record: 4-0 InLax Score: 54.53 Previous: 15
Brown is a little scary right now. Through four games, they rank fifth in total scoring margin, second in scoring offense, second in average scoring margin, fourth in EMO, fourth in penalty kill, first in ground balls per game and third in assists per game. If they don’t have your attention yet, I don’t know what else to say. Keep an eye on this team.
12 Johns Hopkins Record: 3-3 InLax Score: 37.76 Previous: 16
That win over Navy had to feel good for the Jays. They can’t dwell on it for too long as they have a trip up to the Carrier Dome for the top ranked Orange on Saturday.
13 Cornell Record: 3-2 InLax Score: 35.73 Previous: 11
They lost a tough one down in Virginia, but this Cornell team is very dangerous. Ivy league play starts this week, which is what will separate them from the pack, or pull them down into the brutal conference fight.
14 Princeton Record: 3-1 InLax Score: 32.00 Previous: 10
Princeton had a rough time against Maryland this past weekend. Maryland holding this offense to just four goals was very impressive. Penn is up next to start Ivy play.
15 Villanova Record: 4-1 InLax Score: 47.17 Previous: 18
The Wildcats had a solid six point win over Penn. With just the season opening loss to Hopkins to their name, they are looking better by the week.
16 Colgate Record: 4-1 InLax Score: 25.47 Previous: 13
They had a really bad loss to a still new program in Boston University. If they have another one like that, you probably won’t see their name on here, but you can also chalk it up to the Patriot League being the Patriot League.
17 Harvard Record: 3-1 InLax Score: 22.80 Previous: N/A
They came back from the really ugly loss to Duke to score some big wins over Quinnipiac and Penn State this week. A short drive down the Mass Pike to Holy Cross is up next.
18 Holy Cross Record: 3-2 InLax Score: 20.19 Previous: N/A
Speaking of Holy Cross, apparently they can only beat ranked teams? The wins over Loyola and Army are among the best in the program’s history. Their 12 point loss to Delaware? Not so much. Hopefully by May we’ll figure out what this team really is all about.
19 Ohio State Record: 5-2 InLax Score: 46.00 Previous: 19
After a tight win over Hofstra, the Buckeyes stay put. They host Denver on Saturday which will be interesting. Both of their losses are only by a goal each, so we’ll see if they can play the Pioneers close enough to squeeze out an upset.
20 Towson Record: 4-2 InLax Score: 35.82 Previous: 14
Right now, they are .500 against the state of Maryland. I have no idea what to expect from this team yet and I’m not sure their next few games will help me. They host Hobart next Saturday and Ohio State three days later.
Dropped out: Michigan, Loyola
Next five in consideration: Stony Brook, Boston University, Albany, Richmond and Loyola
