All Teams Must Lose.
If you’re a Game of Thrones fan (or even if you aren’t), you know that no character is safe. Not like “they might trip on the castle steps because there are no handrails for some reason” unsafe, but anyone can die a bloody, horrible death in very unexpected ways at any time unsafe. Of course, the book readers among us have laughed at the “surprise” deaths since they knew about them all along.
Why am I talking about Game of Thrones? Well, I write this on Sunday night, which is also GoT night, but also this is pretty much what happened this week in the NCAA lacrosse if you replace sword fights and literal backstabbing with poke checks and behind the back finishes.
All Teams Must Lose – D1 Rundown
No team in the country was safe during their conference tournament. It was even worse if you were the top seed and had the inside track to the Iron Throne. Out of the ten conference tournaments this year, only Towson (CAA), Quinnipiac (MAAC), Air Force (SoCon), and Maryland (B1G) won.
North Carolina (ACC), Navy (Patriot), St. Joseph’s (Northeast), Albany (Am East), Brown (Ivy), and Denver (Big East) all lost. Out of those that won, Air Force went into OT against Richmond, and Towson won a 4-2 grinder over Fairfield. Maryland and Quinnipiac both had good wins, but they were not a walk in the park, either.
This is what true parity looks like.
NCAA Bound D1 Scoreboard
Let’s count out the MAJOR upsets, shall we?
Upset Thursday
13 Quinnipiac vs. Canisius 7
8 Marist vs. Monmouth 7
10 Towson vs. Drexel 6
14 Marquette vs. Villanova 9
9 Stony Brook vs. Vermont 10 <-Upset #1
14 Saint Joseph’s vs. Robert Morris 7
10 Air Force vs. Bellarmine 8
16 Maryland vs. Penn State 9
10 Albany vs. Hartford 11 OT <-Upset #2
17 Denver vs. Providence 8
11 Fairfield vs. Hofstra 8
6 Bryant vs. Hobart 7 <-Upset #3
17 Richmond vs. High Point 6
12 Johns Hopkins vs. Rutgers 14 <-Upset #4
Old School Friday
7 Yale vs. Penn 6
12 Brown vs. Harvard 13 <-Upset #5
Bubble Burstin’ Saturday
16 Vermont vs. Hartford 17
13 Quinnipiac vs. Marist 9
8 Richmond vs. Air Force 9 OT
7 Saint Joseph’s vs. Hobart 11 <-Upset #6
18 Syracuse vs. Colgate 3
4 Towson vs. Fairfield 2
9 Denver vs. Marquette 10 <-Upset #7
14 Maryland vs. Rutgers 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmdxQGPltXM
So You’re Saying There’s a Chance Sunday
13 Notre Dame vs. Army 7
14 Yale vs. Harvard 9
8 Boston U. vs. Duke 15
The Stat Freaks
Freak of the week:
Morgan. Cheek.
I didn’t even have to read the rest of the stats. If you watched him go to work on Friday night against Brown, you’d agree. He even out Dylan Molloyed Dylan Molloy while Dylan Molloy was on the same field putting away 5 goals and 2 assists of his own. Without Cheek’s performance of 9 goals and 1 assist, that upset simply doesn’t happen.
I also need to give an honorable mention to Nova’s John Moderski. 10GBs and 6CT is just a gaudy performance.
Offense: The Cutoff here is a combined 7 goals and/or assists
Hopkins’ Ryan Brown 5G, 2A vs. Rutgers
Hartford’s Justin Higgins 5G, 2A vs. Albany (just 7 shots!)
Fairfield’s Colin Burke 5G, 2A vs. Hofstra
Richmond’s Teddy Hatfield 6G, 1A vs. High Point
Harvard’s Morgan Cheek 9G, 1A vs. Brown
Brown’s Kylor Bellistri 4G, 3A vs. Harvard
Brown’s Dylan Molloy 5G, 2A vs. Harvard
Yale’s Ben Reeves 4G, 5A vs. Harvard
Defense: For here, you need 8 GBs, CTs, and/or points
Monmouth’s Dylan Schulte 3G, 1A, 7GB, 1CT vs. Marist. That’s a full stat line.
Villanova’s John Moderski 10GB, 6CT vs. Marquette. He qualified for this section twice!
Penn State’s James Burke 6GB, 2CT vs. Maryland
Vermont’s Jon Kaplan 7GB, 1CT AS A GOALIE! Vs. Stony Brook
Richmond’s Brendan Hynes 9GB, 4CT vs. High Point
Harvard’s Robert Duvnjak 6GB, 2CT vs. Brown
Brown’s Larken Kemp 8GB, 2CT vs. Harvard
Marist’s Ralph Faiella 5GB, 3CT vs. Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac’s Adam Bellamy 9GB, 1CT, 1A vs. Fairfield
Hartford’s Ryan Vanderford 9GB vs. Vermont <-Another Goalie!
Marquette’s Liam Byrnes 6GB, 2CT, 1G vs. Denver
Marquette’s Jacob Richard 7GB, 2CT vs. Denver
Yale’s Christopher Keating 7GB, 2CT vs. Harvard
Faceoffs: Greater than 70%, at least 10 attempts
Monmouth’s Keen Teluk 12/17 vs. Marist
Hopkins’ Hunter Moreland 12/13, 1G vs. Rutgers
Hartford’s Dylan Protesto 20/24 vs. Albany
St. Joseph’s Mike Lanham 18/25 vs. Robert Morris
Denver’s Trevor Baptiste 21/26 with 15 GB vs. Providence
Richmond’s Peter Moran 17/23, 1A vs. High Point
Quinnipiac’s Will Vitelli 20/25, 1A vs. Fairfield
Maryland’s Austin Henningsen 7/10, 1A vs. Rutgers
Duke’s Kyle Rowe 15/21, 1A vs. BU
Yale’s Conor Mackie 12/17 vs. Harvard
Goalies: Greater than 70%
Fairfield’s Tyler Behring 11/15 vs. Towson
Towson’s Tyler White 15/17 vs. Fairfield
Notre Dame’s Shane Doss 10/13 vs. Army
Conference Tournaments
ACC
Champion: Syracuse
Runner Up: Duke
No change in anything here. Move along…
B1G Ten
Champion: Maryland
Runner Up: Rutgers
Maryland took care of business against the upset minded Scarlet Knights and locked in their NCAA resume while all others around them stumbled. Rutgers’ win over Hopkins to reach the final wasn’t enough of a resume booster to gives them an NCAA bid, so losing to Maryland meant their season ended. Hopkins wasn’t hurt enough by the loss to miss the tournament, though, so the B1G stayed as a two bid league.
Ivy League
Champion: Yale
Runner Up: Harvard
Like Rutgers, Harvard scored a huge upset to get into their final, but they really needed a win to keep on playing this year. Yale’s win really helped their resume, but they probably would have been in the tournament no matter what. Like the B1G, the Ivy stays as a two bid league since one of their two favorites won it all.
Patriot
Champion: Loyola
Runner Up: Army
See ACC.
Colonial
Champion: Towson
Runner Up: Fairfield
Towson owned the CAA from start to finish, so there was no shocker here that they won their conference tourney. Nobody else really had the resume to get into the NCAA tournament, so only an upset would have shaken things up. The CAA gets one bid.
America East
Champion: Hartford
Runner Up: Vermont
Now this was a shakeup! Both Albany and Stony Brook dropped their openers in this tournament, sending the two favorites packing. Hartford won the title, giving them an AQ, and Albany’s season was also good enough to get an at-large. Stony Brook instantly became a bubble team, and with fewer at-large spots available, lost out and is home for the summer. The AE was probably going to send two teams, but nobody expected these two teams.
Big East
Champion: Marquette
Runner Up: Denver
This tournament was Denver’s to lose and after they handled Providence, it seems like it was a sure thing. Marquette thought differently and after having just playing in Denver recently, upset the Pios to win the Big East Title. This is a remarkable accomplishment for such a young program and should provide hope for the many other schools who have recently ventured into NCAA lacrosse. The Big East was probably sending these two teams anyway, but this did impact the seeding for them.
Northeast
Champion: Hobart
Runner Up: St. Joseph’s
This was a true shocker. St. Joseph’s really had this conference most of the year, but many could see Bryant making a run. For Hobart to pull it off is amazing. The win put Hobart in, knocked St. Joseph’s out of the NCAA tournament entirely, and will send the Statesmen into a play-in game this week.
Southern
Champion: Air Force
Runner-Up: Richmond
Had Air Force lost this, they had a case for an at-large bid, but likely would have missed out given everything that happened around the country. Unfortunately for Richmond, that’s where they sit. They did not have the strongest schedule, so were a weak bubble team and really needed a win here to go on. The SoCon was flirting with being a two bid conference all season long, but this was just not the year for them.
MAAC
Champion: Quinnipiac
Runner Up: Marist
Quinnipiac won the title in the lowly MAAC, sending them into a play-in game this week. The conference really struggled this year, which meant they were only sending one team no matter what happened.
