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NCAA Men's lacrosse quarterfinal: Penn State vs. Loyola


Anyone who follows men's college lacrosse knows that this has been a crazy season. The only team that has demonstrated any kind of consistency is our dear old Penn State, but even they have ebbed and flowed a bit. They have just been able to win the games where they haven't played well.

This has not been true for pretty much the rest of the field. It has continued into the NCAA tourney.

Today's two quarterfinal games were close as can be, both going into overtime. If you had just watched last weeks games, and were not very familiar with the season overall, you would not have expected these outcomes.

MARYLAND v. VIRGINIA

Maryland nearly pulled off a huge upset. Virginia is a more talented team that played very well last week. Maryland has not been able to beat any of the top competition it has faced. Credit to Coach Tillman, though, he came up with an outstanding game plan and the players executed nearly flawlessly. They were up by 5 goals with just under ten minutes left when things fell apart. Aside from a super controversial called goal, Maryland just could not win a face-off in the 4th quarter. They lost ten in a row. It's nearly impossible to prevent a comeback that way. Virginia finally took advantage of their better talent, winning directly from the face-off in OT.

NOTRE DAME v. DUKE

If you had seen Notre Dame play last week, you would have thought they are bound for the championship. They dominated a motivated Johns Hopkins team in every phase of the game. But this has been ND's vibe all year long. Win a good game in dominating fashion one week and come back the following week and lose. Duke has really been no different, losing some head scratchers and then winning in championship style fashion. Last week Duke looked very beatable, and I thought Notre Dame had finally gotten off their roller coaster. Yet this week, Duke played a much better game and Notre Dame started out flat. The game then settled into a back and forth nail biter. ND put the pressure on, but Duke found the back of the net in OT.

Both Virginia and Duke look very beatable. That should be an interesting game next week.

PENN STATE V. LOYOLA

Tomorrow Penn State plays Loyola, another team that has had an up and down season. Last week, they beat a surging Syracuse in probably the best game of the tournament so far. The have the best goalie, but their defense isn't great. Like ND, they have won some big games, even getting ranked #1 in the nation, only to lose to teams like Towson and Army. Who knows which team will show up tomorrow. It shouldn't matter if Penn State plays like they can.

Penn State, on the other hand, has managed to keep it together for a twelve game winning streak. They've had bad moments in that run, like getting pushed to the limit by Rutgers and Johns Hopkins, but they haven't faltered like the other teams have. Penn State is the most talented team in the nation, and they have all the tools to win it all. If they can put a full 60 minutes in and limit their mistakes, the tourney is wide open for them.

The last matchup is unfair

PENN v. YALE

These teams should not be meeting in this round, but the powers that be seeded Duke ahead of Penn and made this bracket much tougher than the other, insuring that an ACC team would make championship weekend.

Penn and Yale have played twice this year, with Penn taking both games in very close fashion, once in OT and the other in the last minutes of regulation. Both teams are excellent in all phases of the game, and this should be another nail biter. The winner will play the winner of the PSU-Loyola matchup. (I'm still pissed about the BS seeding this year).

Anyway, Penn State's game starts at Noon (12:00 pm) Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow. That means it starts at 9:00 am for me here in California.

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