The first round of the MCLA D2 tourney is in the book’s and the first batch of games went pretty much like everyone expected. Except for one.
Briarcliffe caught the whole country off guard. In the end, they lost what could be the game of the tournament 9-10 to Utah Valley.
About 200 people, including myself, were lucky enough to catch the Grand Valley-Fullerton game in the early session. It was a great game to watch, but you could easily tell that GVSU just had Fullerton’s number.
Both teams were missing passes in the first half quite a bit. Once it got the the 2nd, you could tell that the Titans just didn’t have the gas to run anymore. Of course, having only 16 guys traveling doesn’t help out very much.
As for the other games, St. Thomas dominated Sam Houston State 22-1, which catches no one off guard. St. Thomas is very, very good. Dayton beat Mo State 14-3, again not really a surprise to anyone.
Game of the day, though, has got to be the shocker that was Briarcliffe-Utah Valley. I say shocker because no one really knew what to expect from Briarcliffe, and figured they do the usual low seed thing and get bounced by a big margin.
Well, it didn’t quite go that way.
Utah Valley is a good team. Really good. They got the #3 seed for a reason. They didn’t have a lead in the game until the 4th quarter. Briarcliffe earned the respect of a nation after getting pushed aside all season. Oh, and it was their first loss in 2010.
In the second bath of game we have the featured game on collegelax.us, #8 Western Oregon vs #9 Grove City. GCC has come out swinging, 5-4 after 1 quarter.
St Johns is barely holding off SCAD after 1, which is very surprising to me. Westminster is up 2-1 over Elon, so it’s looking like a solid day for the SELC. And to finish up, Davenport is enjoying a 3-1 lead over Western Washington.
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UPDATE:
Finally home from work, so I can see what I missed in the second batch of games.
Looking at the scores, it appears that these 4 games were far closer than the 10am games. Briarcliffe-Utah Valley is still looking like the game of the day, regardless of division.
Grove City looked like it was relying on the goalie play of Andrew Dymski, who played quite well. The Wolverines took the win 11-8. Davenport also scored an 11-8 win for the CCLA over the PNCLL. No stats that I can see for that one. SCAD and St. Johns proved to be a close one like I had expected. Westminster kicked out the last SELC team 11-7.
I’ll get pics up as soon as I can find some, otherwise I’ll see you guys again tomorrow!
#3 Utah Valley vs #6 St. Johns, 1pm/3pm eastern
#5 Davenport vs #4 Grand Valley, 1pm/3pm eastern
#10 Westminster vs #2 Dayton, 4pm/6pm eastern
# 1 St. Thomas vs #9 Grove City, 4pm/6pm eastern
I won’t be covering the 3pm games live. I will be in my final exam of the semester. The 6pm game is far more likely to have coverage.
Oh, and I went 7-1 today. Stupid Elon.
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About the Author: The Lax picked up his first stick when he stepped on campus at MCLA D2 school UNC Charlotte. After taking a short break, he returned to the field for independent UNCG. The Lax enjoys flowers, pictures of unicorns, long walks on the beach, and above all else, beating people with his D-Pole.
Contact LaxAllStars at info@lacrosseallstars.com
