#15 Men's Lacrosse Hosts Rutgers 7PM **on BTN**

#15 men’s lacrosse hosts conference foe Rutgers tonight at 7PM at the State Street facility. The game will air on BTN. Michigan finishes its season on the road at Penn State and Ohio State so this is the last home game of the season, thus making it senior night (and creating an odd scenario in which lacrosse, supposedly a spring sport, is wrapping its home schedule before hockey has even finished its season).

Michigan is currently hovering on the fringes of at-large land and every win will help its chances.  But, Re-Tourney Quest: Return to the Tourney, Part II: The Sequel is back in jeopardy again after a frustrating loss against Hopkins last week in which Michigan jumped out to a fast lead and were looking really sharp. But the Jays woke up and took over and Michigan couldn’t put together any runs and were left dream-punching the rest of the game. Shooting was not great, and even some of M’s most reliable scorers missed on some clean looks, but it seemed like the 17 turnovers really cost them (although a few were a result of piss-poor officiating). Justin Wietfeldt was outstanding on faceoffs and at halftime M had a ridiculous 14-1 edge on draws…but trailed 8-7. The Harvard game seemed to follow this same pattern: Michigan appeared to dominate F/Os and ground balls but were trailing the whole game. Turnovers and poor shooting can nullify your other advantages. It seems like this team just hasn’t put it all together quite yet, but it certainly seems like it is capable of doing so. 

Last week, I was remiss in not mentioning that senior attackman and Certified Program Good Guy Michael Boehm was on the verge of becoming Michigan’s all-time points leader. He broke that record on Saturday. This is a mark that was at one time held by his own brother-in-law, Trevor Yealy. Yealy was a key figure in their club dynasty and launch to the NCAA-level (and IIRC, was a legitimate D-1 recruit himself but chose Michigan). This means a lot to Mikey, so congrats to him! Meanwhile, Virginia’s Payton Cormier has pulled ahead of crease attackman Justin Tiernan in the national scoring race and is ahead by a goal at the moment so let’s root for some big games for JT down the stretch. 

Simply put: this has to be a W for Michigan tonight. Rutgers isn’t terrible - and they have some legitimately great players - but they’ve fallen far from their 2022 Final 4 run. All of their W’s have come against teams currently .500 or below. The good teams they’ve faced this year: Army, Princeton, Hopkins and even Ohio State have handled them pretty easily. They’re likely headed for a last place finish in the league this season so Michigan really has to take care of business. If not, the at-large dream gets far more unlikely and they’ll have to grind for the AQ bid via the conference tournament. But this could certainly be a get-right game for them. 

Go down and check it out and wish the seniors well. And GO BLUE!!