M Lacrosse falls 17-8 at #4 johns hopkins

Saw it on ESPN3.  We redeemed ourselves well in this game - JHU is a power.  At one point it looked it could really get ugly but M hung tough to make it respectable.  Kept it single digits.

We played tough. Losing by 9 to JHU is nothing to be ashamed about. We performed better than I expected, since I thought it would be closer to 20-2. Good game Wolverine, we are definitely continously improving.

A good face off guy needs leverage, technique, and quickness.  These guys are usually pretty powerful, but compact.  Think wrestling.

Edit:  meant to be in reply to a question way back.

As a Hopkins alum I certainly was rooting for my Jays, but I was glad to see that my hometown team is looking like it has a good future.   There was a lot of good to see here today on Michigan's part.  They appear well-coached, and disciplined.  There is certainly a long way to go, but the goaltending is really good, and there are some athletes playing midfield - there were some speedy guys out there.  They are all ridiculously young, but their execution is so much better than a year ago.  Offensive ball movement was good.  Faceoff weakness is a killer, as is their need to slide really early on defense.  So while defensive communication seems good, more athletes are needed on the defensive end to join some of the athletes getting PT on offense. (it is possible they are there, but since Defense is much harder to learn than offense, freshmen are less likely to see the field early, even if they are better athletes.)

I was at the game and thought they did pretty well.   They definitely played hard and hung with the Jays for the first few minutes.  Despite the score it was a fun game to be at.  There are a lot of encouraging signs out there.  I think they should have gone into Ohio kill-the-clock mode after going up 1-0!

I also have a few questions for the mgolacrosse community:

1) Was the officiating as bad as it looked?  We couldn't see replays, but it seemed like the two early pushes that gave Hopkins man-up goals were kind of soft/bad calls (don't worry - I'm not stupid, I know the game didn't hinge on the refs!)

2) Was Logan OK?  He made a ton of awesome saves and then when the ball went to the other end he would double over in pain.  He was wearing huge shoulder pads (which D-1 goalies never do) and seemed to be playing hurt.  Heroic effort though.

3) What happened to Matt Graham?  I didn't see him on the field and he's not listed on the roster.  I thought he was supposed to be Michigan's first All-American recruit and he doesn't appear to be on the team which is discouraging.