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Team USA Men's Lacrosse 2014
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Making The Cut: Team USA’s Next Test

On October 5th, Team USA hopefuls will once again face a grueling day of lacrosse to decide who makes the team, and who gets cut. The 52 man roster has been split into 26 man “White” and “Blue” teams, and before taking on each other in an inter-squad scrimmage, the White squad will take on Loyola, while the Blue squad will face Towson. The games will be played as part of the Play for Parkinson’s Showcase on October 5th in Alexandria, VA.

The White vs. Loyola game is slated for noon, the Blue vs. Towson game kicks off at 2pm, and the inters-quad USA scrimmage goes down minutes after the second game ends, at 4pm. See below for the rosters for both teams, and our thoughts on how the teams were divided:

USA “White”

Matt Abbott (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Syracuse), Drew Adams (New York Lizards, Penn State), Jesse Bernhardt (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Maryland), Steven Brooks (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Syracuse), Brendan Buckley (Boston Cannons, Army), Kevin Drew (Charlotte Hounds, Syracuse), Tucker Durkin (Hamilton Nationals, Johns Hopkins), John Galloway (Rochester Rattlers, Syracuse), Greg Gurenlian (New York Lizards, Penn State), Kyle Harrison (LXM PRO, Johns Hopkins), Kyle Hartzell (Ohio Machine/Philadelphia Wings, Salisbury), Marcus Holman (Ohio Machine, North Carolina), Anthony Kelly (Denver Outlaws, Ohio State), Eric Law (Denver Outlaws, Denver), JoJo Marasco (New York Lizards, Syracuse), Rob Pannell (New York Lizards, Cornell), Dillon Roy (Denver Outlaws, Denver), Chris Schiller (Charlotte Hounds, Penn State), Max Seibald (New York Lizards/Philadelphia Wings, Cornell), Michael Simon (Denver Outlaws, Stevenson), Drew Snider (Denver Outlaws, Maryland), Garrett Thul (Hamilton Nationals, Army), Drew Westervelt (Chesapeake Bayhawks/Colorado Mammoth, UMBC), Lee Zink (Denver Outlaws, Maryland)

USA “Blue”

Mitch Belisle (Boston Cannons/Minnesota Swarm, Cornell), Kevin Buchanan (Boston Cannons, Ohio State), Dan Burns (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Maryland), Ned Crotty (Rochester Rattlers/Philadelphia Wings, Duke), Matt Danowski (Charlotte Hounds, Duke), Chris Eck (Boston Cannons, Colgate), Michael Evans (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Johns Hopkins), Brian Farrell (Boston Cannons, Maryland), Joe Fletcher (Loyola), Ben Hunt (Chesapeake Bayhawks, North Carolina), Brian Karalunas (New York Lizards, Villanova), David Lawson (Rochester Rattlers, Duke), Kevin Leveille (Rochester Rattlers, UMass), Stephen Peyser (New York Lizards, Johns Hopkins), Mike Poppleton (Hamilton Nationals, Johns Hopkins), Jeff Reynolds (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Maryland), Jeremy Sieverts (Denver Outlaws, Maryland), Brett Schmidt (Charlotte Hounds, Maryland), Jesse Schwartzman (Denver Outlaws, Johns Hopkins), Steele Stanwick (Ohio Machine, Virginia), Matt Striebel (Rochester Rattlers, Princeton), Kyle Sweeney (Boston Cannons/Philadelphia Wings, Georgetown), Kip Turner (Chesapeake Bayhawks, Virginia), Kevin Unterstein (New York Lizards, Hofstra), Ryan Young (Charlotte Hounds, Maryland)

When you look at these teams a couple of things stand out:

1) Were Most Players Assigned In Groups? Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but in many cases players have been matched up with guys they know from either the MLL or their college days. All four of the offensive players who graduated from Syracuse are on the White squad. All four offensive players from the Rochester Rattlers are on the Blue squad. You have three of Boston’s best poles all on the Blue squad, and Chris Eck is on that team as well. The Blue team also has four offensive players from Maryland on the roster who all played in college together. Four of the NY Lizards midfielders and attackmen are on the White team. Peyser is on the Blue team, along with two other members of the defense.

You want to test guys, but also give them some familiarity. That makes sense.

2) Brendan Mundorf, Paul Rabil, and Matt Mackrides will not participate in the October 5th scrimmages due to injuries.

3) Air Force, Richmond, and Georgetown will also be playing at the event, which is FREE to the public.

4) Team USA Gear Sponsors – It looks like Nike, STX, and Cascade will be the gear sponsors for Team USA in 2014.

This should be an exciting display of lacrosse, and pride. The team will eventually be cut down to 23 men, from the current list of 52 players. This means 29 players will have to be cut before Denver 2014…

Who do YOU choose?