By the end of the afternoon on Sunday, we should know the four teams moving on Championship Weekend in Philadelphia for the semifinals. Three of these four matchups will be rematches from earlier in the season, while Albany-Notre Dame will be a rematch from last year’s quarterfinals. These should end up to be four of the best games of the lacrosse season, as Albany, Denver, Johns Hopkins, and North Carolina would like to get some revenge on their opponents.
SATURDAY (DENVER – GAMES ON ESPNU)
Albany vs. #1 Notre Dame: 3 PM
I think this will be the game of the week and maybe of the tournament until the championship showdown. Two high power offenses and two of the best players in the game, Lyle Thompson and Matt Kavanagh, will square off against each other again. Many things have changed for both of these teams. For Albany, no Miles or Ty Thompson, but instead, there’s Connor Fields and Seth Oakes, two high scoring attackmen that have meshed in beautifully with the Picasso of the sport in Lyle. Outside of his amazing goal, Blaze Riorden looked very impressive in the cage Saturday against Cornell. He’s got to be rock solid again against Notre Dame if Albany wants to pull off the upset, while the defense has needs to play its best lacrosse of the season and limit guys such as Kavanagh, Perkovic, and others in scoring. For Notre Dame, Mikey Wynne joins an explosive attack unit with midfielders such as Sergio Perkovic, Will Corrigan, and Nick Ossello. In the net is sophomore Shane Doss. Overall, Notre Dame needs to perform a lot better than they did against Towson last week. Towson looked very good until Notre Dame tired them out.
Ohio State vs. #4 Denver: 5:30 PM
Ohio State holds the two best upsets of the year so far and will look to make it three, and the second upset against Denver. The Buckeyes looked very good from the 2nd quarter on in their upset against Duke last week. David Planning stood out with a career high six goals and an assist in the affair and needs to have a similar performance against the Pioneers. Ohio State is capable of pulling off the upset, but can also look like a team that can get upset, such as against Detroit and Rutgers this year. For Denver, they’re a more complete team than Ohio State. They have a star-studded attack, along with goaltender Ryan LaPlante, who played an important role in their win Sunday against Brown. Denver also has home field advantage for the second straight week, as they’ll be playing at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. We’ll see which Ohio State team comes to play Saturday afternoon.
SUNDAY (ANNAPOLIS – GAMES ON ESPN2)
Johns Hopkins vs. #2 Syracuse: Noon
Speaking of home field advantage, Hopkins is about 40 minutes away from the Naval Academy, so I would expect to see a huge crowd of baby blue in attendance for this game. They played very good against a Virginia team that beat them in OT earlier in the year, and also gave Syracuse a challenge in their meeting in mid-March. Everybody seems to be playing good lacrosse at the right time, from the Stanwicks, to Joel Tinney and the midfielders, and especially goaltender Eric Schneider. Meanwhile, the Orange are coming off of a dominant performance of their own, beating Marist 20-8 in the Carrier Dome. But they’ve played a lot different outside, with tight wins against St. John’s, UNC, and Duke. I’m going to expect another tight game from the two rivals. I’ll have more on this game on Friday.
#6 Maryland vs. #3 North Carolina: 2:30 PM
This is the only matchup with two seeded teams in the quarterfinals. Both of these teams played to a 10-8 Maryland win in California earlier in the season. UNC defeated Colgate after losing two straight one-goal games. They might have the best overall team in the country as well. For Maryland, they’ve struggled going into the postseason, with tight wins against Loyola and Rutgers, before losing to Hopkins and Ohio State, before pulling out a tough 8-7 win at home against Yale. Charlie Raffa didn’t look 100%, and he’s going against Stephen Kelly from UNC. I have a feeling it will be split 50-50 in face offs, unless Raffa feels close to 100% or Kelly takes advantage of Raffa.
