If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I carry with me a certain bias when I talk about Division III lacrosse. Yes, I’m a graduate of Springfield College and have a connection to the program at St. Mary’s, but where my real bias lies is with the perpetual underdogs, the underappreciated, the respected but not necessarily the favorite.
I’m talking, of course, about teams from up North.
Up here we start spring practices in the snow, deal with less-than-ideal conditions in the early season, and enter the postseason on the underside of the eight ball. But take a look at this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and see who sit at No. 1 and No. 2: Rochester Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Cortland—both residents of the great, white north.
All told, the USILA Poll could not be more balanced. Ten of the 20 ranked teams are from the north and all but two of the teams in the “receiving votes” category are used to seeing snow for the first few weeks of the season. With that snow still on the ground it’s far too early to proclaim the north this season’s dominant force, but I also wouldn’t rush to crown Stevenson or Salisbury prohibitive favorites for the title either.
Going back to 1995, when Hobart moved up after winning 13 national championships in 15 years, the South holds an 11-8 advantage in the final game with Salisbury owning nine of those titles. The high end of D3-North has always been strong, but now the teams in the middle are starting to find a balance that have created the parity found in many other collegiate sports.
Whether or not this trend continues remains to be seen. Are we simply seeing the golden age of several northern lacrosse programs, or are recruits who may have flocked to Division I schools or the same handful of Division IIIs now spreading out? I hope for the latter, because games like 2013’s title game between Stevenson and RIT or 2010’s edition featuring Tufts and Salisbury are infinitely more fun than 19-7 Salisbury wins as in 2011.
Groundballs
- If you haven’t already, be sure to look at this week’s USILA Poll and D3 Players of the Week. Those will be posted every Monday for your perusal.
- Early season scheduling can be a tricky mistress. While some teams elect to play a lesser team in its first game (Springfield vs. Gordon, Cabrini vs. Haverford) others dive right in and risk getting caught with a little too much rust. I applaud teams like Roanoke, Nazareth and Stevens for risking an 0-1 start just to get right into the season, even if it can be hard to lose your first game. Here’s to hoping they all rebound.
- The rest of the Top 20 will make their debuts this week as No. 11 Western New England, No. 15 Ithaca, and the trio of NESCACs open play. Every one of them will have battles on their hands over the weekend as WNE heads to No. 3 Stevenson, Ithaca hosts No. 1 RIT, No. 18 Middlebury travels to No. 5 Tufts, while No. 12 Wesleyan hosts Hamilton.
- One gear note: How did everyone feel about Stevenson’s uniforms over the weekend? Someone who likes gear much more than I thought it was too much green and I tend to agree. I’d love to hear from y’all on this one.
Mailbag
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