Tough day of scrimmages for the lax team
The newly minted varsity lacrosse team had two scrimmages today, neither one of them turning out very well. Last week Michigan lost a close on in OT to Providence; today, they were beaten by St Joseph's and crushed by Towson.
Towson isn't much to worry about. Lousy season last year but Towson is typically a solid team, and they had five one-goal losses. But St. Joe's is almost always pathetic.
Takeaway for those looking forward to Michigan's first NCAA lax season next year: the entire gamut of scrimmage caveats applies, but Michigan was 1-3 in the fall scrimmage season (the win was D-III Concordia) and it kind of underscores the challenges we'll see in the spring. You'd have liked to see a win over St. Joe's.
October 9th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^
I have faith with time this team will win big!!
October 9th, 2011 at 12:54 AM ^
But is the lax game OSU weekend in the Big House going to be a scrimmage then? Still trying to learn how this all works.
October 9th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
No. Lax is a spring sport so that'll be an in-season game. I think you're crossing some wires somewhere. There's no lax game during football weekend; the deal is that the lax game against OSU will be in the Big House. Coinciding with the spring football game IIRC.
October 9th, 2011 at 1:00 AM ^
My wires were crossed. Thanks.
Yay night shift brain-working-comprehension things!
October 9th, 2011 at 12:56 AM ^
I went to the game v Towson this afternoon. We were very clearly overmatched from the get-go. I don't think we won a single faceoff (or whatever it's called in lacrosse). Emil Weiss (G #11) really seemed to be struggling in the first half. I think he maybe made 1 or 2 saves en route to a 10-0 halftime deficit. We switched goalies at halftime (Cy Abdelnour) and he seemed to do considerably better. Made a few really solid saves and kept the 2nd half respectable although Towson probably had let off the gas by that point.
There was actually a decent michigan fan turnout. I estimate there were about 50 michigan fans to maybe 30 towson fans. I didn't realize it till late in the game because, frankly, there wasn't really anything to cheer about till we got out 1st goal in the 3rd quarter and then I could tell who was cheering for michigan.
Bottom line is that we're very overmatched from a talent standpoint and it seems like it's going to be really tough to even be competitive this year. Still a lot of fun to watch though. Go blue
October 9th, 2011 at 1:00 AM ^
Faceoff is correct. I believe Tim mentioned at Great Lax State that our starting faceoff guy missed the Providence game - he might have also missed today's scrimmages too, I don't know.
October 9th, 2011 at 6:52 AM ^
October 9th, 2011 at 9:04 AM ^
D1 varsity LAX is vastly superior to club varsity LAX, but "This Is Michigan" and "If You Build It, They Will Come!"
It may take a few years to adjust, and UM’s first year of varsity status could be very ugly, BUT there likely are some varsity caliber LAX athletes with good academic credentials at several D1 schools who might welcome the opportunity to move from second or third line status at a strong D1 school to starting status at Michigan.
Also, there may be a graduate student who has a year left of NCAA eligibility who’d welcome the chance to help build a strong varsity LAX program at Michigan and get to play at The Big House. Find some of those players at Cornell, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Virginia and UNC (and maybe even the rare student from Notre Dame where LAX has become very strong) who might be enticed by an extra year of LAX while working towards a graduate degree at Michigan.
For a few years, "recruiting" transfer and graduate students could be as important as recruiting first-year players.
Somewhat like hockey, the key to speeding up UM’s development in varsity LAX may be finding two great players – a goalie and a man at the X (the faceoff specialist.)
As Doug Karsch likes to say, "Besta Luck!" And Go Blue!