Michigan Lacrosse wins Season Opener
Michigan lacrosse started their 2019 season today with a 10-8 win over Cleveland State. The Wolverines tore out to a 7-0 lead. The Vikings scored their first goal a few minutes left in the first half, and stormed back to make it a one-goal deficit.
The Wolverines would hold on the lead, however, with two second half goals by Brent Noseworthy and another goal by junior attackman Jason Brown. Today's game was Brown's fourth in his three year career and his first career start.
Others to score include Alex Buckanavage with 3 goals and Kevin Mack with 2 goals. Avery Myers and Decker Curran each added a goal as well.
Without knowing what the shots on goal were like, it seems like fifth year senior Tommy Heidt had a bad game in the cage, only saving 52% against a lowly-rated Cleveland State team. So either the defense was poor or he was a little rusty back there today.
Sophomore Connor Cronin ran into problems at the faceoff X, only winning 8 of 19 faceoffs, which certainly partly explains why Cleveland State hung with the Wolverines today. Of course, the defense could help by causing more turnovers, too. But, perhaps the Vikings could've been just better prepared for the new shot clock rule by already having a regular season game last weekend.
Michigan plays its next game February 19 in Ann Arbor vs. the Drexel Dragons at 3 PM. After that, they head to Jacksonville to play the Dolphins on February 23 at 11:30 AM. That game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
February 9th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
Elsewhere in the Big Ten:
#9 Penn State beat Robert Morris, 27-10
#3 Maryland narrowly defeats Richmond, 10-9
#7 Johns Hopkins lost to Towson, 17-8
#12 Ohio State is up 17-10 on Boston University in the 4th quarter
#16 Rutgers is beating St. John's 9-7 in the 2nd quarter
February 9th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
The faceoffs are pretty discouraging - Michigan has never really had a great faceoff man (at least not since the club days). They'll need to improve if they want to compete for the postseason.
Hopefully this was just first game hiccups and maybe Cleveland St isn't too bad. Let's beat Drexel now. GO BLUE!
February 9th, 2019 at 2:32 PM ^
It was an away game in another teams indoor facility, which always seems to pose challenges for the road team. Our historical advantage from oosterbaan was obvious, could be something similar here. Plus first game can always give weird results. As long as it's a W, style points matter more at the end of the year.
Intrigued by the Hopkins score. Can't wait until the Hopkins game on March 30. Will be there and bringing a couple teammates.
February 9th, 2019 at 2:54 PM ^
LACROSSE POSBANG!!!
February 9th, 2019 at 3:32 PM ^
“Noseworthy” is the perfect last name for a lacrosse player.
February 9th, 2019 at 3:37 PM ^
Yea Us! I'd like to follow M Lacrosse but there is just too much out there to follow, how are we doing these days, i.e. is the programs reputation getting better?
February 9th, 2019 at 3:49 PM ^
This year Michigan is a lot of people's dark horse to sneak into the Big Ten Tournament and possibly even the NCAA Tournament. The offense is there, but the faceoff unit and defense will have to step up for those goals to be accomplished.
February 9th, 2019 at 4:51 PM ^
Women's Lacrosse also started 1-0 by beating Cal yesterday!
They play again today at UC Davis
February 10th, 2019 at 1:47 PM ^
The M women's club lacrosse team won the WCLA National Championship, is ranked #1, and opened their season by thrashing MSU 20-1.