Lacrosse: Great Lakes Lacrosse Classic Champs
As noted in Friday's preview, Michigan and Michigan State have closed the MCLA regular season at a neutral site in each of the last four years, as part of the Great Lakes LAcrosse Classic. This year's game, at East Grand Rapids High School, was more of a nailbiter than expected, but the close game provided fans the opportunity to see some high-level lacrosse.
Recap
The game got off to a quick start for the Spartans, as they built up a 2-0 lead five minutes into the game. Michigan would eventually respond on two transition goals, the first coming on a successful ride, as Zach Mueller stole the ball and fed Trevor Yealy, followed by a Jordan Kirshner strike. After MSU took the 3-2 lead, Svet Tintchev (pictured below, from mgobluelacrosse.com) scored on a feed from Anthony Hrusovsky to tie it up going into the second.
The teams would continue to trade goals in the second quarter, but once Michigan State took a 5-4 lead, Michigan went on a 5-0 run, taking the 9-5 lead into halftime. Michigan's goals in the frame would come from Yealy (three times), Josh Ein (twice), and David Rogers.
The game would tighten up in the second half, as both teams upped the physical play leading to several big hits. Jordan Kirshner scored the first tally after the break:
Michigan opened the scoring in the second half with a nifty play as Kirshner teased his defender into thinking he was going to sub at midfield, before darting back into the box alone, taking a feed from Ein on the right GLE and firing high for the 10-5 lead moments into the third.
Michigan State put in the only other goals of the quarter, for a 10-7 score going into the final frame.
Michigan managed to kill off a 2-man-down situation early in the fourth, but another penalty shortly thereafter gave Michigan State the opportunity to get within two goals - and they capitalized. Michigan gained a little separation on a David Rogers tally with just over four minutes left in the game, and the Wolverines managed to keep possession for almost the entire remainder of the game for the 11-8 win.
Official Site Recap (source of quote and photo above)
Notes and Analysis
Michigan State's goalie stood on his head through much of the first quarter, and again in the fourth. During those times, Michigan's shots weren't always making him work hard for the save, however. Once shot quality improved (and frequency increased), the Wolverines put several shots past him.
David Reinhard was his typical solid self, winning 68% of his faceoffs, though even he had a slump when Michigan was struggling early in the game. Goalie Mark Stone had a solid outing, keeping Michigan State from scoring one several good opportunities. However, a couple balls that could have been saved got past him.
Senior Kevin Zorovich went out late in the first half with a knee or lower leg injury. He returned from the locker room after the rest of his teammates following halftime, and though he was still wearing his full gear (sans helmet), never returned to the game.
This is a much better MIchigan State than we;ve seen for the past few years. It will be a shame if this loss (combined with some unfavorable results elsewhere) keeps them out of the MCLA Tournament.
If you live in the Grand Rapids area and want to catch the game on TV, it will air on local access WKTV on Saturday at 5PM. The station will also have DVDs of the event available for purchase at a later date.
Up Next
The CCLA Conference Tournament goes down at Saline High School this weekend. Michigan has a first-round bye, and will take on its first opponent Saturday at 4PM. The Wolverines and Spartans are favored to rematch in the Conference Championship Game.
Next up on the blog will be a round of MCLA Bracketology and a CCLA Tournament Preview.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
April 27th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^
Club varsity squads are not necessarily closer to being elevated to full varsity status, and will remain for the time being primarily self-funded and administered through the Department of Recreational Sports. However, the designation will give these teams a closer relationship to the U-M athletic department.Is it your assessment that this "closer relationship" has had no bearing on the team's success since this policy was announced on 9/8/2000? I find that hard to believe, but I'm not close to the program.
April 28th, 2010 at 12:11 AM ^
They won't even have to use the fieldhouse, since they are getting their own building
Their building won't have a competition venue, just offices and training facilities.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
Quite correct! And the queston about the extent to which the varsity club status has enabled various kinds of success is worth exploring.
Follow-up question for laxalum: did the switch to varsity club status help JPs camp with things like facilities, etc.?
As a player, I was never really clear on a lot of the administrative stuff that was going on, so I don't really know how the varsity club thing helped. I can tell you that the team is still nearly 100% self-funded, and the budget, according to JP, is nearly $1 million a year. I don't think varsity club meant that the university kicked any more financial support. Plus, as has been mentioned, the team in building its own version of Schembechler Hall for several million dollars - all from private funds.
As players we took most of the behind the scenes stuff for granted, and it's just in hindsight that I started to realize how good we had it. What's scary is the current team is light years ahead, in terms of support, facilities, coaching, equipment, travel, of what we had when I played. I don't think there are more than a handful of D1 teams that have the resources the Michigan team has. The fact that they (JP) have done all of this themselves is mindboggling.
I do know the team has been running camps and clinics, both in the summer and winter, for years. I have worked them. They are really well attended, and they get kids from all of the over the country. The Michigan name is a big draw, club or not. Their camps are listed on the camp page at mgoblue.com, so I assume that's one of the ways the varsity club thing has helped. I have no idea what they pay to use facilities for camp.
Thanks UMman. You seem to have more inside info than me. Post more often.
You're right about the budget. I recall JP saying that the actual operating budget is around $500,000 a year, but if you add in what they get through their sponsors it is closer to the $1 million mark.
The switch to Adidas was probably really big for the lax team. Adidas doesn't have any of the big-time D1 lax schools, so they, unlike, Nike, will really value the lax team as a wearer of their gear.
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