M Lax falls to #1 Maryland; Michigan Stadium field gets makeover

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Was at the Michigan Men's Lacrosse game today in their Michigan Stadium opener against #1 Maryland as my first game as a season ticket holder.

Michigan was only down 2-1 after one quarter and 6-2 at halftime. Maryland definitely is the #1 team in the nation and showed it as they pulled away in the second half winning 13-5. They had some great defense.

Michigan's defense, however, is making huge leaps. MD was getting smoked on faceoffs in the first quarter until they put in their backup faceoff man.

Since scoring the OT winner on Saturday over Bellarmine, Mikie Schlosser is on a roll. He had two goals today along with Ian King, the team MVP right now IMO.

Stats from the box score

  • Shots: 42-31 Maryland
  • Groundballs: 27-22 Maryland
  • Faceoffs: 11-9 Maryland

Michigan gets Saint Joseph's on Saturday at 3pm at Michigan Stadium. They beat Joe's last year 11-8 for Team 2's only win of the season. Michigan has doubled their win total from the last two years combined.

However, Saint Joe's isn't as horrible as they were last year. SJU is 5-2 right now with a loss to High Point by the same score Michigan lost to them.

Also, the Michigan Stadium field has gotten a new look for lacrosse. Last year, there was just a more colored-in midfield line and the two creases around the nets. Now, the markings of a lacrosse field are on The Big House field giving it a true lacrosse school feel.

Still kicking myself for forgetting my camera in my car so I went on MGoBlueTV and screenshot the field from the broadcast replay-

 

Wolverine Devotee

March 18th, 2014 at 10:43 PM ^

Field Hockey used to play at Michigan Stadium back when they started their program.

ADept had to move quickly due to the Title IX passing so since there was nothing else Astroturf on campus, they played at Michigan Stadium.

Also, do you know where the current practice locker rooms are for lacrosse? They're in the basement of Ray Fisher Stadium....and they practice at Oosterbaan Field House....

DB didn't just add Lacrosse (Men's and Women's) just to have them. He added them and is going to show commitment to them. Hell, Rowing is getting their own INDOOR practice facility.

danimal1968

March 19th, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^

all of the other sports at Michigan have had to do their own fundraising.  Other than the Crisler renovations and the PDC, all other major construction/renovation projects did not start until commitments for donations had been obtained to cover the costs (or in the case of Michigan Stadium, a plan in place to raise the money through suite and club seat sales).

I assume that if a LAX facility is going to be built, it will be funded the same way, or perhaps through the Leaders and Best fundraising program being spearheaded by the AD.

WolvinLA2

March 19th, 2014 at 12:21 AM ^

Yeah, that league is stacked, but it's entirely possible the Big Ten is neck and neck with them 5 years from now or so. Especially if they add a team. Right now, they have one fewer team than we have. Our top two are as good (or better) than their top 2, but their next 3 are just as good and we drop off. But if another ACC team added lacrosse, that team would be well below our worst team (by then) and our teams are certainly on the upswings (except maybe Rutgers, but they're OK).

I'd like to see a lacrosse Big Ten - ACC challenge in a few years.

L'Carpetron Do…

March 19th, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^

I don't really understand the need for a stadium either.  It's great to have the support and everything but from a money standpoint it doesn't make sense.  It will cost a ton of money to build and they already have plenty of facilities on campus that can support lacrosse.  Oosterbahn and the Big House work out just fine.

Lacrosse is a great sport because you don't need to build new facilities for it.  You don't need an arena or a rink or a pool.  Lacrosse can play on a football or soccer field, or even field hockey turf.  just plop down two goals and some lines and you're ready.  Those facilities already exist on campus right now.  Several schools (DUke, UVA, etc.) play on their soccer fields and others (Syracuse, Maryland) play in their football facility.   The idea of a 'lacrosse-only' stadium seems unnecessary, even wasteful to me.

Plus, I recall the proposed site was out near the tennis complex, which is ridiculously far away.  I had friends on the tennis team and I never even went out there. 

Plus, from a recruiting standpoint - don't you think playing in the Big House is a better selling point than 'new lacrosse facility'.  No other teams can offer that.  

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

March 19th, 2014 at 10:35 AM ^

You might say that soccer is played in the lacrosse stadium.

I don't think that playing in the Big House is a better selling point, honestly.  If I were a lacrosse player, a major selling point would be having our own facility.  UVA's soccer and lacrosse teams play in the same stadium, but each has their own locker room.  It's there for the lacrosse team all year.  (And it's every bit as plush as the football one.)  Borrowing the football team's stuff and playing in front of 2,000 people and 108,000 empty seats would scream "second-class program at your own school."  I'd rather go somewhere that puts their money where their mouth is in terms of support for the program.

That may be just me, but I bet a lot of athletes feel the same.  It might be fiscally more sound to use the fairly brand-new soccer facilities, although I'd still rather (if I were a Michigan lacrosse player) not borrow their locker room.  But TIMFGS.  What is the point of swimming in cash if you don't use it?  And what better use for the cash than swank new facilities built specifically for the lacrosse program?

laxalum

March 19th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^

Don't need.  We don't need a 109,901 seat football stadium or a revamped Crisler either.  But we have those things in order to be successful enough in those sports to create the revenue necessary to build things like lacrosse stadiums (or to add lacrosse in the first place).  Why did we build the wrestling practice facility  or redo the baseball and softball stadiums for that matter?  They will get a lacrosse facility because the mission in Ann Arbor is to be the best and the resources exist to make a good run at getting there.

I agree with Wahoo that from a recruiting standpoint a dedicated facility is a much better draw than playing in Michigan Stadium.  I've played lacrosse in empty college and pro football stadiums.  It's cool once.  Then it kind of sucks.

L'Carpetron Do…

March 20th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^

You guys are nuts.  Even at UVA - wouldn't you rather play at their football stadium than at the tiny soccer stadium?  Who cares about filling it up?  It doesn't matter.  No other sport besides football could fill up a legit Division 1 football stadium (and they can't even do that at most schools).  No other Division 1 teams can say their games are played at the biggest football stadium in the country.   It doesn't matter how many people go.

To play lacrosse you need a field 100+ yards long and 50 something feet wide.  At Michigan you have that in 1) the Big House 2) Oosterbahn 3) the soccer field 4) the field hockey field.  There's plenty of places lacrosse can play without throwing millions of dollars at building a new stadium to  win some kind of imaginary athletic facilities arms race and to please a handful of recruits in a non-revenue sport.

If the athletic department is swimming in cash, maybe it should stop building unecessary new structures and pass the savings on to the student body in reduced football and basketball ticket prices.   All of that money comes from the students, alumni and fans anyway.   There has been a lot of griping on this blog about how Brandon and the athletic dept treats season ticket holders not so great because the prices keep going up and up and up.  

I do want to see the ath. dept take care of the lacrosse program but I don't want it to get carried away. 

Essentially this all comes back to the absurd influence of money in big time college sports which I have a lot of issues with so I'll stop there.  

chatster

March 19th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^

Fitting a lacrosse/soccer field inside a 400M track might be possible. There’s a 10,000 seat college stadium in New England (with some Major League Baseball and American Football League history) that hosts men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse and women’s professional soccer and men’s Major League Lacrosse; but it’s surrounded by only a four-lane track, so that wouldn’t be suitable for Michigan. This video tour of the facilities is hosted by a woman who’s now a member of the USA national women’s lacrosse team.

LordGrantham

March 18th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^

I don't know lacrosse, so I think I'll call the area inside the giant semi circle the "Mike Cox forbidden zone."

rob f

March 18th, 2014 at 9:14 PM ^

I would think the team deserves their own home some day, as I wouldn't guess they'll ever come close to filling up Michigan Stadium.

mlax27

March 18th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^

I saw the game, and was impressed. Maryland looked like a final 4 type team, and Michigan played them tough. The defense looked great, and so did Schlosser.

I would say Lott is the MVP right now if I had to choose. Lott is really doing it by himself for the most part, and against some of the top face off guys in the country. I think he has a chance to get first team all ECAC, which would be a Michigan first.

laxalum

March 19th, 2014 at 8:37 AM ^

Their best defender this year has been Gembis, and I didn't see him yesterday.  Injured?  I hope not, because he has seemed to be the one guy who can consistently d up good attackmen, he's great at ground balls and he's been a big part of the clear.  Keady, who was probably going to start this year, has been out all year from an injury in the fall.  That's two starting close D out.  Moore has also been out for awhile, and I got the impression he was pushing Brown for starting LSM duties.  And of course they are playing the whole season without one of the best goalies in the country in Logan.  That's four potential starters or at least heavy rotation guys at D who were out.  For a young team that's not that deep, that's a pretty big hit - especially against Maryland.  

It has been good to see guys like Zonino, Hatton, Walker and Sherman step up to fill some of those roles this year, but aside from Sherman they are still depending on a lot of young guys at positions where young guys usually don't play much.

Seeing the stream yesterday just made me wish men's and women's lacrosse were more similar - or at least used the same lines.  You're seeing a field with lines for three sports (football, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse).  It just looks messy, and it has to be confusing for people just getting to know lacrosse.

ak47

March 19th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^

Just as a heads up Marylands top faceoff guy was out injured, Michigan was going up agains the second and third string guys, he didn't do poorly but it wasn't as good as it may seem either.

laxalum

March 19th, 2014 at 1:15 PM ^

True.  Raffa was out.  But Lott has already had very good days against some top faceoff guys (Kennedy at Hopkins and Tesoriero at Cornell).  It's very hard to dominate in every game at that position.  So much of it comes down to rythym or that particular match-up of techniques.  I thought he had a below average day yesterday by his standards.