The NCAA men's lacrosse championships were here in Philadelphia last weekend. I went Sunday to the Division II and III finals. The games were incredible. The teams were evenly matched, as you'd expect at a championship level, and each wasn't decided until very late in the game.

In the opener for the Division III championship, Salisbury scored the deciding goal with under 6 seconds remaining. (They're the current dynasty in small-school men's lacrosse...it's their third straight NCAA championship, and they've won their last 49 games!!!)

The Division II championship went into overtime. Limestone seemed to have the skilled players, but New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) was scrappy, did what they had to do, had great goaltending, and scored the winning overtime goal.

I didn't go to the Division I games, but Johns Hopkins capped an undefeated season with an overtime win over Virginia in the semifinals and a 9-8 win over Duke in the final. The ACC ruled pretty much this year, as 3 of the 4 semifinalists were 3 of the 4 ACC schools who play Division I lacrosse.

In the stands with me on Sunday, though, was an attractive guy with brown eyes and reddish hair...and a Dartmouth Lacrosse cap. I wondered if...no, it couldn't have been...could it? If I was sitting near Andrew Goldstein and didn't say hello, wow, I'll be kicking myself for a while. (Andrew, if you're reading this...you weren't wearing a yellow shirt? And sitting with a big guy in a Patriots Super Bowl hat? Was he trying to make trouble in Philadelphia...?)

[ June 01, 2005, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: Ted P ]

Ted P, I don't suppose you caught this Salisbury Seagull's wardrobe malfuntion?

These guys are dominating. Don't know how they'll manage to 'keep it up' considering how fast the sport is spreading. Competition is bound to get tougher in all the divisions.

I got to see the Salisbury boys up close and personal earlier this year. The season opener was a much colder experience than the title game.

Salisbury - Marymount Lacrosse, the 2005 Season Opener

LaxShots: Salisbury Downs Marymount 28-3

LaxShots Photo Gallery

Those two previous links aren't working right now. I'll be watching them to see how that turns out.

Salisbury U. Athletics

[ June 01, 2005, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Thanks for the links and photos! I obviously don't get here often enough...it's been a crazy week.

Here's an old thread that I can use. The 2006 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Finals were also held here at the Linc and I was out there today for the Division I championship game. There was a record crowd of 47,062 and the weekend total attendance of 144,688 was also a record.

The final featured the Unseeded vs. the Undefeated. wink The underdog UMass team fell behind 4-1 but it could've been worse as unbeaten Virginia had a lot more shots and scoring threats. The UMass goalie was terrific early on, and his team eventually tied it at 5-5 early in the third quarter. From then on it was all Virginia -- ten goals to two after that for a final of 15-7.

Next year the championship weekend is in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium.

If you really want to try to meet Andrew Goldstein, I note that he's listed on the roster of the Long Island Lizards team in the Major League Lacrosse outdoor league. They play the Phila. Barrage in July at Villanova Stadium and the R5 Regional Rail train stops at their campus. Maybe we should plan an outing?

[ May 29, 2006, 07:29 PM: Message edited by: FireCharlieManuelNow ]

I's official: lacrosse as the state sport in Maryland that is.

It comes at a time when the Terps bombed out in the semis in Div I and the the Gulls came second best in Div III, so it's a bright spot for lacrosse in Maryland, despite the somewhat pretentious headline of the article. Frankly it's now officially in the states interest to make "ownership" of the sport seem more widespread rather than more restricted.

It would cost the state nothing to promote it off-season with say a beach version (like beach wrestling has for Realpro) and to encourage more "non-elite" schools to take up the sport. Maybe by scheduling it not to overlap with soccer, and emphasizing the primarily Native American origins to a broader range of young people. A much more diverse fandom might start feeling a sense of "ownership" as well.

Dramatic nit to pick.

Lacrosse may be Maryland's team sport, but Maryland, like Canada, has two official sports. In Canada, the two sports are hockey and lacrosse, and in Maryland, the two sports are jousting and lacrosse.

Since all Outsports listers are surely in the habit of printing my posts and storing them in three-ring binders, can it be necessary for me to remind one and all of this link?

posted February 05, 2004 02:36 PM

Nit duly picked. I should have said team sport AND mentioned that jousting was the other (and earlier) state sport.

You don't want to get on the bad side of a jouster. Quite painful.

With no cable TV, I saw none of the NCAA events of the weekend. I couldn't find any coverage on the radio either. I did manage to see UVa play once this year, at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland. It must have been "Kids, Meet the UVa Team" Day, as I was able to walk out onto the field at the end of the game. Not knowing this in advance, I did not bring a camera. Too bad, as I got to watch Matt Ward give an interview to some media person. I could have had an autograph, the whole ball of wax, etc.

As an earlier post of mine in this thread says, I saw Salisbury play Marymount last year. I did not see UMass play. They were at Georgetown this spring, but the skies opened up that afternoon. It just plain poured.

Chat on another board suggests that the UMass goalie "Doc" Schneider has quite a career ahead of him. A year ago, he was in high school. Yesterday, he was in front of 47,000 people. When the score was tied 5-5, I'll bet a few people turned to each other and thought they were in for a real game.

The one game of the weekend that I would like to see on DVD is the Cortland-Salisbury game. That may have been the best game of the weekend.

The UVa v UMass match was great! We watched it on ESPN at my parents house in Indianapolis....Had I not been there I would have gone to philly to cheer the boys on!