Memorial Day Weekend

5/27/22

Memorial Day Weekend is known to many as the beginning of the summer. It’s a chance for Americans all over the country to get outside, grill some burgers and dogs, and to crack open a few beers and hangout with family and friends. For the lacrosse world, however, Memorial Day Weekend is a celebration of the sport.

Everyone in college lacrosse knows the importance of Memorial Day Weekend. This is when the final four for division one plays, and eventually the National Championship on Monday. For divisions 2 and 3, however, their seasons will end on Sunday with their National Championships. Regardless, Memorial Day Weekend is filled with nothing but the fastest game on two feet.

With all that said, do not expect the unexpected for this year’s D1 Men’s National Championship. The first game tomorrow will be a very competitive game between Cornell and Rutgers. It’s the battle of the Kirst brothers, with Rutgers’ Goalie Colin Kirst facing his younger brother and Ivy League rookie of the year, Attackman CJ. Cornell is also sturdy on the defensive end of the field, with unanimous first team All-American Gavin Adler locking down the other’s team number one attackman day in and day out. Yes, he’s only 5’8, but he has amazing footwork in and around the crease, and he’s strong as a bull when it comes to guarding bigger attackman. He is also very fundamental when it comes to throwing checks and making sure he isn’t beat on the perimeter.

Meanwhile you have Rutgers. They’re old, and they’re loaded with veteran players. The Scarlet Knights have 28 seniors on their roster. THAT’S INSANE! What that means for Coach Brecht’s squad is that they can run without the fear of being gassed on one side of the field or the other. He has confidence in all of his players to go out on the field and ball out, and if someone is tired they’ll just sub out and get a breather. This means Rutgers can run in transition and play the game it was mean to be played, fast as fuck. Because of this I think Rutgers is going to beat Cornell. I think it’ll be close at the half, but because Rutgers can simply outrun the Big Red, The Scarlet Knights will win by 4-6 goals. I wish I could say the same for Princeton to be close to the Terps.

The second game of the weekend is between Princeton and big bad Maryland. Maryland is going to win the National Championship. It’s that simple. They are unstoppable and arguably the greatest college lacrosse team OF ALL TIME. Coach Tillman has said multiple times that his team has not played a perfect lacrosse game yet, and he’s right. If you look at the tape, it is very clear, as Tillman said, that they haven’t played a perfect game yet. Early in the year against Syracuse they allowed a subpar Orange team to go toe to toe with them until halftime. In the Big 10 tournament, they let John’s Hopkins mount a comeback late in the game to only lose to their rivals by 5. The thing that separates Maryland from other teams that make mistakes is that they are good enough to comeback from terrible mistakes. The Terps can play at 75% of their best game and they’ll still blow teams out. I think their best games this year were against UVA both times they played them, and they embarrassed the champs by beating them by 9 both times. Maryland is going to embarrass the Tigers and then smoke either Cornell or Rutgers.

Princeton got some bad luck in drawing Maryland in the final four. I think Princeton does not have a chance at beating the Terps at all, but I do expect them to make it interesting at some point during the game, weather it be early on or making a final push in the fourth quarter. Princeton just has not been consistent enough throughout the season, so it’s tough to figure out which Tigers team we’ll see tomorrow. Will it be the team we saw early in the year who dominated everyone they faced, except the Terps, or will it be the team we saw play any other Ivy League team, where they went 4-3 in the league? Either way, I do think they have the potential to make it a close game, but don’t expect Princeton to upset the soon to be champs in UMD.

Finally, the expected National Championship, Maryland against Rutgers. It’s a rematch of the Big 10 Championship, and it’s going to be a Maryland by a mile. In the first two games these two have faced off in this year, Maryland crushed Rutgers by scores of 8 and 10 respectively. Based off this trajectory, Maryland would be expected to win by 12, which would be absurd. I think it would be more of a game then this, but the score might not show the dominance that Maryland will most likely have in the Championship. Expect the Terps to play their best two games of the season this weekend, and expect three high scoring games in 2 days for D1.

Really quick, the D2 and D3 games. Both National Championship games are on Sunday; Mercy against Tampa for D2 and RIT versus Union for D3. I can say I haven’t really been paying attention to the D2 teams, but based off the level of dominance Tampa had against a historic powerhouse Limestone in the semifinals, I think Tampa will be the champs. For the D3 natty, I think it’s astonishing that its a Liberty League battle for the hardware. RIT’s play in the substitution game is ridiculously effective, and nobody in D3 has been able to stop it for the past 2 years. The Tiger’s create a ton of transition from D to O, with their goalies told to look deep for streaking players after making a save, and through the sub game they are able to create mismatches where they get O-middies stuck on D. I think this game will be close, as Union has played RIT close historically, but I think RIT will be back to back champs.

Starting tomorrow, I will be parked on the couch doing nothing but watching the game I love. I would normally be going to the game, but seeing as it is an 8 hour drive to the games again this year, that will definitely not be happening. Happy Memorial Day to all, and let’s watch some lacrosse baby.