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Reader Poll: Who Will Be The MCLA D1 Champ?

As we laid out in last week’s Reader Poll, we are dedicating our May Reader Polls to the College Lacrosse Champions. This week, we are voting on the MCLA D1. The tournament officially kicked off Monday in beautiful Greenville, South Carolina. Our own Krieg Shaw was there as a color commentator for the first two rounds and kept us up to date on all his encounters while he was in the Palmetto state.

By the end of today, we will have both our D1 and D2 Championship set. We’ll quickly showcase both D1 and D2 Semifinals, then let you vote on who will win the D1 Tournament this year.

In the MCLA D1 quarterfinals, there was not an upset to be seen. A valiant effort was given by Oregon as they never gave up despite a short bench and a 4 OT game the night before, but it just wasn’t enough to take down a powerful BYU team. The other three teams cruised to wins and proved their seeding in the tournament was dead-on.

MCLA D1 Semifinals

  • #1 Colorado State vs. #4 Brigham Young University

Two very familiar foes in the first semifinal game. Both teams have gone back and forth over the past several years, but BYU leads the series 10-6. Colorado State took the match-up earlier this season to the tune of 16-5. If BYU wants any chance at beating the top-seeded Rams, their defense will need to find a way to slow down this very powerful team. The Cougars have given up 22 goals so far in this tournament, as compared to 7 by the Rams, 9 by Colorado and 10 by Arizona State (thanks to Lax Country for that stat!).

  • #2 Colorado vs. #3 Arizona State

This is easily the most anticipated semifinal match-up, featuring one of the best and deepest offenses in Arizona State, against the smothering defense of the Red Hot Buffs. Arizona State has replaced the Westfall brothers with a slew of talent. Freshman goalie Preston Anderson has put up a 62% save percentage on the season and will look to slow down the Buffs on the other end of the field.

These teams have met six times before and are dead-locked at 3-3 in the series with Colorado taking the last match-up 6-5 in 2012. As we’ve seen with the CU/MSU game, you can’t put too much worth on past games.

MCLA D2 Semifinals

  • #1 St. Thomas vs. #4 Liberty

These two teams have never played before so this should be a really fun game to watch. Tournament favorites St. Thomas have just overpowered their opponents in the tournament, taking down #16 DePaul 11-3 and Coast Guard 18-8. Liberty has done just the opposite, grinding out their way to the semifinals with victories over NDSU 12-11 in OT and Grove City 10-9. Liberty will have to slow down a very deep St. Thomas bench if they want to advance to Saturday.

  • #2 Westminster vs. #3 St. John’s

Westminster is currently up 6-2 over St. John’s at halftime. It really has been an all-Westminster game thus far and their discipline and tenacity has proven to be very advantageous in this game. Coach Goodhand has been stressing fundamental defense hard this year and it is clearly evident so far today.

[myo_poll poll = 52731 type = “bar” perc = “yes”]