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2022 Lacrosse Season Surprises and Disappointments

We’re almost halfway through the 2022 season, and it’s time to reflect on the first half of play. We’ve witnessed some incredible stories like Jacksonville’s rise to the national spotlight and the Ivy’s return to sheer dominance despite missing the 2021 season. All highs come with lows, and teams like Loyola have fallen short time and time again. We’re approaching the midway point, so it’s time to reflect and reevaluate. 

Surprises

Jacksonville

Who else would headline this list? The Jacksonville Dolphins have unequivocally been the biggest surprise in D1 this season. Even the most optimistic fans couldn’t have expected this start. The Dolphins are currently 6-2 with ranked wins over Duke and Denver. #DuvalMission has been ranked as high as No.8 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll – a program record. Legendary goalie John Galloway took over a three win team and built it from the ground up. Galloway has coached for the last 6 seasons, and 2022 has been by far the most successful.  

Jack Dolan and Jeremy Winston have been staples of this program for the past four years, and the pair of seniors should be given credit where credit is due, but this season has been the Max Waldbaum show. Waldbaum elected to take his 5th year of eligibility to the sunshine state. The former Tufts All-American has been the star of the show. Whether it’s backhand diving goals from GLE or his infamous belly rub celebration, Waldbaum has been a handful and a social media star. If you like thick attackmen, there’s no better game to watch than Jacksonville vs High Point on April 2nd. Max Waldbaum vs Asher Nolting. Get your popcorn ready, it’ll be a good one. 

Jacksonville has already faced the hardest stretch of their schedule, but the most important games are yet to come. High Point and Richmond have ruled the SoCon for the past number of years. If Jacksonville truly wants to legitimize themselves they’ll need to take care of business in conference play and beat one – if not both – of these teams in the regular season. They can’t afford any bad losses because the rest of the schedule is full of quad four teams such as UMass-Lowell, St. Johns, VMI, and Hampton. It’s crucial Jacksonville doesn’t drop one of these trap games. 

Jacksonville is ranked in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, according to the Lacrosse Reference. They’ve been impressive on both ends of the field, but they need to take better care of the ball in order to win the SoCon. The Dolphins rank 39th in turnover rate, and they’ve had over a 40% turnover rate in five of their eight games. This trend could be detrimental and keep the Dolphins out of the NCAA tournament. As long as they stay efficient on both sides of the field and limit turnovers, I don’t see how America’s team doesn’t finish in the Top 20. 

Boston University

I wrote about how Boston U always seems to be on the cusp of greatness in a previous article, but this season really could drive them over the hump. The Terriers are just one of four remaining undefeated teams in division one – Virginia, Maryland, and Cornell are the others – and this feels like the year it could finally come together (knock on wood). 

BU won the battle of unbeatens last weekend in a Patriot League showdown against Bucknell. Boston University jumped out to an early 2-0 lead which included a half field goal on a 10-man ride by defensive midfielder Jett Dziama, and the game never felt close from there. If you like highlight reel goals you might want to watch this team play; Matt Baugher scored a one-handed turnaround shot from about 7 yards out, and Jake Cates had a sportscenter worthy swim move and finished with a twister later in the half. This veteran team is playing a relaxed and fun brand of lacrosse. 

Boston University’s Achilles heel has typically been suffering untimely losses to inferior opponents. Last year, that was Utah in 2OT, and it was Colgate and Harvard in 2019. BU avenged last season’s Patriot League Quarterfinal loss to Colgate earlier this season, and they’ll have the chance to prove themselves as Massachusetts’ best men’s lacrosse team next Tuesday against Harvard. 

Looking ahead at the rest of the schedule Boston University plays three Ivy league teams – Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. I expect BU to win one of these games, and Harvard would certainly be the most likely. But if the Terriers can win two of these three games they can truly solidify themselves as a top 15 team with a chance at an at-large bid. Boston University has never been to the NCAA tournament, and with the Patriot League having a down year this could be exactly the opportunity BU needs to win their first league title and make a run into May. 

The recent success can be credited to the defense. Matt Garber has been unbelievable between the pipes. The senior is 3rd in goals against average (7.79) and 4th in save percentage (62.4%). His play has propelled Boston University to 2nd in D1 in defensive efficiency, and they’re allowing a D1 best 7.6 goals against per game. The defensive dominance combined with controlling 54% of time of possession has made it very difficult for opponents to slow down BU.   

Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, BU faces three Ivy league teams and is scheduled to play Army, Navy, Loyola, and Lehigh in the regular season. There aren’t layups left on the schedule, but at 5-0 BU gets to control their own destiny. 

Disappointments

Loyola

It’s hard to call Loyola disappointing after upsetting Duke last week and earning #20 in the most recent IL Media Poll, but hear me out. The Greyhounds were one goal away from a trip to the final four last season, and they haven’t looked the part at all since. Furthermore, Loyola brought back almost every impact player from last year’s roster. Ryan McNulty is going to play in the PLL this summer, and the attack duo of Aidan Olmstead and Kevin Lindley have been running this offense for years. Loyola has no glaring reason for regression, yet they’ve fallen to an unimpressive 2-4 record.

Let’s break it down game by game. Loyola opened the year with a visit to College Park to challenge Maryland on national television. There weren’t many folks who believed in an upset, but Loyola got absolutely domed. It was a 20-8 final, but the game looked even worse than the score showed. Not a good start for the ‘hounds. Loyola faced Hopkins in the battle of Charles street, and they fell a goal short. The analytics show that it wasn’t their worst performance, but it was their first loss to their rival since 2017. That’s a hard pill to swallow.

Rutgers was next in a weird game that was delayed over an hour because the Scarlet Knights forgot their uniforms in Piscataway. Tough day for the equipment manager. It was a one goal loss to the #6 teams in the country. You’d think that would build momentum right? 

Next up was Towson in a midweek contest. This should’ve been the one, but again, Loyola fell short losing 12-10. This was a hard pill to swallow, and things were looking real grim. Luckily, Loyola turned it around with a two goal victory over Lafayette in their first Patriot league game of the season. I’d like to think Loyola is two goals better than Lafayette, but a win is a win. 

I don’t think many expected this outcome – I certainly didn’t – but Loyola finally earned a statement win over Duke. The Greyhounds were 4.5 point underdogs, yet they managed to get revenge on the team who eliminated them a year ago. Kevin Lindley was phenomenal, scoring 7 points (6g 1a) on 10 shots. The duo of Bailey Savio and Eric Pacheco got the better of Jake Naso winning 14-24 faceoffs. This was a much needed win.

The reason Loyola lands on this list is because they were ranked No.8 to start the season, and they were so close to championship weekend a year ago. This lackluster start can be blamed on the defense which is ranked 63rd out of 73 D1 teams. Sam Shafer has been unimpressive to say the least with a 39% save percentage which is by far the lowest of his career. The offense hasn’t been much better ranking 42nd in offensive efficiency. 

There is still time to turn this season around, but it has to start now. The Duke victory was massive and should serve as a confidence booster. Hopefully Loyola can move on from a winless February and build on these last two wins.

Vermont

Ranked No.17 in the IL preseason media poll, expectations were high for the Catamounts after winning their first conference title in program history. Unfortunately, Vermont hasn’t been able to live up to those expectations. UVM took a 4-2 lead into the locker room against Duke to open up the season. The Blue Devils woke up in the second half scoring 13 goals and winning the game without much sweat off their back. Vermont has also suffered losses to Utah, Brown, Dartmouth, Providence, and UMass. 

Now 2-6, Vermont will begin conference play this weekend against NJIT. The American East has struggled so far this season, and their overall conference record is 11-29 which is the lowest in Division 1. Stony Brook has been far and away the best team in the American East, but the Seawolves are banned from this year’s AE conference tournament because they are moving to the CAA beginning next year. 

Vermont still has a chance to win the conference and earn an AQ. The offense has struggled scoring just 10.8 goals per game, and their offensive efficiency has reflected this ranking 51st in D1. This is head scratching because the Catamounts are 3rd in the country averaging 56.5% time-of-possession per game. They’ll need to turn possessions into goals in order to win the American East and earn another trip to the NCAA tournament.