#19 Men's Lacrosse @ #16 ND, 12PM Today
On what is a huge day for Michigan sports all across the board, men's lacrosse also plays it's biggest game of the year thus far, traveling to South Bend to take on rival Notre Dame (1-3). The game will be on the ACC Network (which may be accessible through ESPN(?)). Michigan knocked off a #4-ranked(!) Irish squad in South Bend in 2018, so they're not in unchartered territory.
Michigan (7-1) is coming off its first loss of the season, a disappointing and frustrating game against the Harvard Crimson last week. Harvard slowed down Michigan's high-powered offense and once they went on a run in the 3rd quarter, Michigan couldn't keep up. You can catch some of the highlights here: Harvard vs Michigan Lacrosse Highlights | 2022 College Lacrosse - YouTube. And if I'm honest, M gave up a handful of cheap goals on substitutions, miscommunications and poorly-timed slides and Harvard even scored a fluke goal on a weak shot that hit the post and bounced off the goalie's back. On offense, Michigan hit the post or crossbar on several good looks; it was a frustrating day. But, those defensive problems are fixable so hopefully they cleaned it up in practice this week.
Here's the thing: Notre Dame can certainly win this game and they can certainly lose it. The Irish are 1-3 (albeit against a stout schedule featuring Maryland, G'town and Ohio St.) and have been sliding down the rankings since starting the season in the top 10. They have plenty of talent but are ranked 61st(!) in team faceoff percentage, which could be a huge factor because Michigan is ranked 9th in F/O% and gets Rowlett back today. If Michigan can win a healthy number of faceoffs, keep the Kavanaugh brothers under wraps and generate some turnovers (ND had tons of turnovers in the 2018 game), they can get out of there with a victory. The only thing that worries me is that the Irish lost to #1 Maryland by only 2 goals.
But, I'm psyched for this game. A win today gets them to 8-1 heading into B1G play and that would be huge. GO BLUE!!
March 19th, 2022 at 12:03 PM ^
CORRECTION: the game is on the U!!!
Ughh, stupid Indiana and their stupid time zones. I kept thinking SB is in CT but it's on east coast time, somehow? So, the game is starting now rather than at 1PM like I thought. Plus, isn't that state weird with daylight savings too?
Anyway, #1 Maryland plays #2 Virginia today as well in the biggest matchup of the year. I wish there was a way for college lacrosse to schedule these games so they're not buried under the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.
Fun fact: ND's star attackmen the Kavanaugh brothers are from Coach Conry's hometown (and mine). They had an older brother who played for ND too and was one of the most prolific scorers in NCAA history so M will have it's hands full today. Also, former ND QB Rick Mirer has a son playing for each team today.
South Bend has always (at least as long as I remember) been on Eastern time but Indiana only recently adopted daylight time on a statewide basis so they used to be on the same time as Chicago in the summer. Michigan City is on the same time as Chicago.
March 19th, 2022 at 12:26 PM ^
2-1 M after 1Q. Carr has made some outstanding saves for Michigan. They need to create more opportunities and bury the looks they do get but they're playing tough. Keep it up, boys.
March 19th, 2022 at 12:57 PM ^
Ugh, that 2nd quarter was a disaster.
Uggh, pretty awful second quarter. M somehow managed to get off zero shots on goal. Carr is still playing his ass off and the score could be much worse. But M couldn't clear and made a bunch of unforced errors. ND is playing great defense that M can't solve and when they have gotten decent looks, they toss a soft, poorly placed shot that is easily saved. They'll have to create a lot more opportunities - and capitalize on them - in the second half if they want to take the momentum back.
3Q a little better but M's shooting is pretty bad. ND is playing excellent sound D but Michigan is still getting the occasional good look but either missing the cage or serving up a meatball. They need to bury some shots and Zawada needs to get going. He has zero goals and got a shortstick matchup at the end of the quarter but just sort of fell down. Carr is still outstanding though.
Final 12-7 ND. Pretty awful game. And that score is not indicative of how the game went. Offensively, it was a complete nightmare for Michigan all day. Then they had a meltdown in the second half and ND stretched the lead to 12-4 and that was all she wrote. M got a few late goals. Notre Dame's defense was pretty great for most of the game but when Michigan did get some looks, they biffed them. The shooting was atrocious. Constant turnovers, many of them unforced, were also a theme.
At the same time, the score is much worse than it could've been for Michigan. Carr was superb and kept ND from really blowing it open (plus, giving up 12 goals is pretty good this day and age). If they were just a little more competent clearing and shooting, it would've been a much more competitive game. It was a weird game but I think M knows they're a better team than that. Hopefully, they can put it out of their minds because conference play starts next week vs. Hopkins and it's a whole new season. GO BLUE!
To hell with Notre dame.
strange. My phone auto spells Rutger with no s but has no idea what Notre dame is.
Anybody else coming in town for the Maryland game? I got 1 teammate coming from upstate NY that I know of, and I’ll be in attendance.
March 20th, 2022 at 12:21 PM ^
I'm still trying to figure it out but I might come. Our LSM in 01/02 (#17) will be there and he said there will be a handul of guys there from that era, Classes of 01-05. Faceoff man #40 may be as well.