Conference Standings So Far: Ryan’s Rundown

NCAA Lacrosse is back and the conferences are alive and well! With the light open last weekend and the grand opening this weekend, we are officially underway for the NCAA Men’s DI season.

So that means the DI Rundown is back!

This will be your weekly stop once the week of games is over to see what happened and what’s come up next. New this year will also be a section where you might get more than just Men’s DI action. As we get into the meat of the season, you’ll also see me diving into DII, DIII, Women’s, and maybe even some JUCO fun while we’re at it. The high level reporting will stay with Men’s DI, but the detailed work and games can come from anywhere!

Scoreboard

Saturday 1/29

Bellarmine 4 – Mercer 9

Friday 2/4

Robert Morris 12 – Duke 21

Saturday 2/5

Air Force 11 – Virginia 21

Bucknell 16 – Mercer 14

Mount St Mary’s 11 – Navy 9

Michigan 22 – Bellarmine 13

Utah 13 – Denver 14

Providence 16 – Holy Cross 9

Lafayette 15 – Penn State 20

NJIT 9 – Delaware 19

Jacksonville 8 – Johns Hopkins 11

LIU 6 – Rutgers 15

Detroit Mercy 7 – Ohio State 18

High Point 13 – Maryland 21

Sunday 2/6

Vermont 7 – Duke 15

Merrimack 7 – Hofstra 8

Conference Comparison

This is the section of the rundown to keep track of how conferences are doing against each other. This year especially is going to be really weird. Teams are loading up on conference games, some teams aren’t even playing, and the non-conference slate has changed entirely.

Games Notes

This was definitely not the introduction the brand new ASUN conference was hoping for. Going 0-6 is disappointing, but there are some silver linings to that record. Utah almost pulled off the upset against Denver and nearly every other game was a reasonable expectation to lose. For example: Detroit Mercy against Ohio State and Air Force against UVA.

On the flip side, the Big Ten has to be feeling great sitting with a 6-0 opening record behind every single team in the conference posting a season opening win. What makes this a big deal is they are coming off a 2021 season where none of them were playing out of conference games until the NCAA tournament rolled around. Both Hopkins and Penn State had to sweat things out for a while, but each eventually pulled things together for wins.

The other big note is that we no longer have an independent schools! Every men’s team currently has a conference, so that means everyone but the ACC has a shot at an AQ of some sort to get into the NCAA tournament.

This Week’s Games

Wednesday 2/9

Marist – Rutgers (MAAC vs Big Ten)

Friday 2/11

Johns Hopkins – Towson (Big Ten vs CAA)

Richmond – UNC (SoCon vs ACC)

Colgate – High Point (Patriot vs SoCon)

Manhattan – Duke (MAAC vs ACC)

Saturday 2/12

Mercer – Navy (SoCon vs Patriot)

Bucknell – Robert Morris (Patriot vs ASUN)

Holy Cross – Syracuse (Patriot vs ACC)

Marist – Binghamton (MAAC vs AE)

St. Bonaventure – Saint Joseph’s (MAAC vs NEC)

Merrimack – Boston (NEC vs Patriot)

Villanova – Penn State (BE vs Big Ten)

Sacred Heart – Hofstra (NEC vs CAA)

Lehigh – NJIT (Patriot vs AE)

Quinnipiac – Umass Lowell (MAAC vs AE)

Fairfield – Stony Brook (MAAC vs AE)

Mount St Mary’s – Delaware (NEC vs CAA)

Siena – LIU (MAAC vs NEC)

Air Force – Denver (ASUN vs BE)

Lafayette – VMI (Patriot vs SoCon)

Canisius – Hobart (MAAC vs NEC)

Marquette – Bellarmine (BE vs ASUN)

Bryant – Providence (NEC vs BE)

Umass – Army (CAA vs Patriot)

Utah – Vermont (ASUN vs AE)

Detroit Mercy – Michigan (ASUN vs Big Ten)

Rutgers – St John’s (Big Ten vs BE)

Loyola – Maryland (Patriot vs Big Ten)

Cleveland St. – Ohio St. (ASUN vs Big Ten)

Sunday 2/13

Johns Hopkins – Georgetown (Big Ten vs BE)

Colgate – UNC (Patriot vs ACC)

Jacksonville – Duke (SoCon vs ACC)

High Point – UVA (SoCon vs ACC)

Games to look out for

Richmond – UNC (SoCon vs ACC): Richmond is basically the ACC’s B squad at this point. They love playing ACC teams and they always play them tough, sometimes coming away with a win. UNC is still expected to be incredible this year coming off a Championship Weekend appearance, but they have some gaps to fill due to graduation. Add this one to your Friday to-do list.

Villanova – Penn State (BE vs Big Ten): This isn’t quite the “Battle for Pennsylvania” since teams like Penn and Drexel would really like to be part of that conversation (especially Penn), but this game has major, major potential. Penn State is coming off a win, but they had to sweat things out early on Lafayette, which was not expected.

Mount St Mary’s – Delaware (NEC vs CAA): Coming off their huge upset over Navy, the Mount has another chance to take on a strong Delaware squad and could launch them solidly into next week’s Top 20. This isn’t a game that most casual lacrosse fans would seek out, but I am highly recommending that you do so if you can.

Utah – Vermont (ASUN vs AE): The game of the “what could have been”. Utah almost pulled off an upset of Denver while Vermont was toe to toe with Duke for a solid half before the Blue Devils took over. So there is the question: who was for real, and who had a lucky game?

Loyola – Maryland (Patriot vs Big Ten): This is probably the headliner of the weekend. Two top 10 teams in an early season matchup, but Loyola will be in just their first game of the year. Maryland did Maryland things in the opener to nobody’s surprise. Should the Terps win? Sure. But Loyola has a real shot at a win here and it should be a great game regardless of the outcome.

Johns Hopkins – Georgetown (Big Ten vs BE): While Hopkins needed to turn things on in the second half to overcome Jacksonville, this will be our first look at Georgetown, which is a team I have high expectations for. So this could go two ways. Either, we get a better sense of where Hopkins is, which is somewhere in the high teens range in the rankings, or they pull off the upset and prove they’re really in the mix for the Big Ten right away. Georgetown does have a few question marks, but their defense should show up ready to play, and they aren’t going to be lacking scoring wise.