M Lacrosse falls to Mt. St. Mary's at home, 14-6
Michigan jumped out to an early 3-1 lead, before letting mount st. mary's go on a large run. Michigan seems to be having the problem the hockey team did back in October, scoring the first goal(s) and getting satisfied letting the other team come back.
Glad to see the team not quit, they netted one in the final 30 seconds.
Michigan will travel to harvard next Saturday.
Updated ECAC Standings
| Team | ECAC | Overall | Next Up |
| 1) #5 Loyola | 2-0 | 5-0 | 3/24 at UMBC 7pm |
| 2) #16 Fairfield | 1-0 | 7-1 | 3/24 W 17-12 vs Hobart |
| Ohio | 1-0 | 3-5 | 3/24 vs Bellarmine 7pm |
| 4) #8 Denver | 1-1 | 5-2 | 3/24 W 11-8 at Air Force |
| 5) Bellarmine | 0-1 | 3-2 | 3/24 at Ohio 7pm |
| Hobart | 0-1 | 2-3 | 3/24 L 12-17 at #18 Fairfield |
| 7) Air Force | 0-2 | 3-4 | 3/24 L 8-11 vs #8 Denver |
| 8) MICHIGAN | 0-4^ | 1-8 | 3/24 L 6-14 vs Mt. St. Mary's |
^ Michigan is not eligible for the ECAC Championship or ECAC Tournament Championship because they're an affiliate member for the 2012 season. Therefore, games do not count as conference wins or losses in the standings. Likewise for opponents totals.
Emil Weiss will get the start in goal for Michigan.
MSM goal, Michigan trails 0-1.
SCORES!
Doug Bryant ties it at 1-1.
SCORES!! Yealy gives Michigan the lead 2-1 with under 6 to go in the 1st!
SCORES!!! Dutton-O'Hara makes it 3-1 Michigan late in the 1st!
MSM calls timeout.
MSM goal, Michigan leads 3-2 with under a minute left in the 1st.
MSM goal with 3 seconds left in the 1st. Tie game at 3.
End of the 1st period: Michigan 3 mount st. mary's 3.
MSM goal. Michigan trails 3-4 almost halfway through the second period.
I just thought, are we one of only 3 schools with D1 football, bball, baseball, hockey & lacrosse? I'm thinking its just us, Ohio, and a Notre Dame. It's sure nice to have so many major sports to cheer for
Penn State will be the 4th when they add hockey next fall.
Score at halftime: Michigan 4 mount st. mary's 8
Started out great again. Should start putting together fuller efforts next year as part of the progression of the program.
It will come. We are playing very good club guys against varsity players. 1-2 wins this year was the expectation, anything more is gravy.
I live in Maryland where lacrosse is huge; lots of the HS kids/parents I yap with know that Michigan started a varsity program.
The smaller East Coast schools will lose more and more recruits to Michigan as time goes by.
They trail 5-13 with less than 3 left in the game.
Michigan & MSM both score late.
Final Score: Michigan 6 mount st. mary's 14
The ohio mentioned was the dump in columbus, not ohio university.
Seems like we will need to start winning some faceoffs before we will really be able to compete. The games I've watched we seem overmatched there. Not that that is the only deficency we have compared to these established teams, but it would help to have the ball a little more.
Can anyone who played/follows lacrosse closely comment on this? From my untrained eye, it seems like faceoffs are a huge deal in a posession sport such as lacrosse, especially without a shot clock. Am I over-valuing what they mean to a team? Is it just a matter of our team having not recruited a D1 athlete suited for the position yet? Or can you be "coached up" to win them?
To me, it seems to me like a position where the guy who wants it more is going to get the faceoff. Like a "grit" type position that Zach Novak would play if he were a lacrosse guy. I'm trying to get into lacrosse any any info someone more seasoned in the sport could provide would me more than appreciated.
March 24th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^
It was a frustrating game today. As you alluded to, faceoffs are a pretty big part of the game, as possessions are a big part of lacrosse. Of course you can still win a game without winning the majority of your faceoffs, but if you have troule clearing and don't have the best performance on D, ot will be a long day if you are losing your faceoffs too. (UM was 7 of 23 today, although I musty say that I coached the Mount St. Mary's faceoff guy his first year in 8th grade. He was a faceoff machine then too as he was quick and never gave up.)
Next year hopefully that will change some, as Michigan has the #1 2012 Faceoff recruit committed according to ESPN Rise (typically a team will recruit guys to only take faceoffs, called FOGOs, or "Face Off Get Off" players). Of course, unless the faceoff guy is good enough to always win it by himself, the team still needs good wing play to help pick up the ground balls after the faceoff guy wins the draw and directs the ball to the location that he wants it to go.
The clears today were another dissapointment. The team was 7 of 13, and the worst part was that 2 or 3 of the turnovers on the clear were due to Failure To Advance (taking too long to get the ball into the offensive box), not because of the great ride of Mt St Mary's, but because of the lack of urgency of the Michigan clear. It seemed like they were taking their time, when a little extra hustle would have gotten the ball into the box in time.
Still have to be proud of Team 1, but was hoping for a little better showing to impress the visitors in the Big House.
March 24th, 2012 at 10:31 PM ^
How was the turnout today? +/-1000?
March 25th, 2012 at 11:53 AM ^
Lemme add a potentially too-late comment to this. I've been tracking efficiency stats for lacrosse, and from what I find, I think the general public does overrate the importance of faceoffs. Not that they're not important; in OT, for example, it's absolutely vital to win the faceoff.
But when you break down the possessions and you find how they start, last year for example, faceoffs accounted for only 35% of possessions. This year it's slightly up to about 38%. It probably will never go above 40%. Winning 60% of faceoffs is an oustanding number and yet if you do that in a typical 70-possession game (which is actually a little fast) you've only earned yourself three more possessions, all else being equal. The best two faceoff teams in the country are Bryant and VMI; VMI is also one of the worst teams in the country overall.
You sir just earned yourself a new blog reader
It depends on the style and pace of the game but face-offs can be huge. In a game with a lot of scoring and turnovers face-offs may not be that crucial. But in a lot of Michigan's games, with long possessions and low scores, they can be very important. If you're down you're never really out of it if you have a good faceoff man. They can fuel a big comeback run. On the flip side, its very hard for Michigan to get back in these games if they can't win faceoffs.
There is a remarkable amount of cheating that goes on in facing off in lacrosse. It's usually the guy who can cheat the most and get away with it that wins the FO and not necessarily the guy who wants it most!
Scrappiness is definitely a good trait you want in a faceoff man. Novak would make a good faceoff man. So would Kellen Russell and other wrestler types. Quick, strong hands are the most valued asset.
Thanks for the info Buck.
All of what you said makes a lot of sense. It is frustrating watching some of these games sit at like 3-3, then all of a sudden the other team goes on a 3-0 run without us even touching the ball.
March 24th, 2012 at 11:44 PM ^
There is much less cheating in faceoffs now than there was a few years ago. Referees are now more keen to the tricks faceoff guys use, and they are also quicker to call procedure penalties when they see it. Plus NCAA rules changed last year to make cheat moves like grabbing the ball an actual time-serving penalty. Faceoff guys don't do it much anymore since they know the result is a man-down when it used to just be possession.
The best faceoff specialists (FOGOs as nickoko aptly described) are highly skilled. It's not enough to just be quick and scrappy. They focus on facing off throughout their high school careers and are recruited specifically for that role. You can't just make a scrappy guy a good faceoff specialist in a year. Lott will help Michigan a lot (did that on purpose) next year. The D1 recruits they have coming in will also help on the wings as the team gets more athletic.
This team has a lot more problems than just faceoffs right now, but you're right...not a lot they can do if they can't get the ball.
Expect to see some improvement next year, but their best players will be freshmen. It's going to take a few years to get really good. It will happen though.
March 25th, 2012 at 12:03 AM ^
My favorite not particularly exciting lacrosse pictures of all time (note Smith palming the ball for those of you not in the know).
March 25th, 2012 at 12:40 AM ^
Is Jim Harbaugh still trying to make him into a real life NFL quarterback....
/Not That Alex Smith
and by "Interesting", I mean stupid
That's very true - I notice a lot of very quick whistles on faceoffs now - so quick that you don't even know what happened. In most cases, Kessenich and McEnany on ESPN dont even tell you what happened because it happens so quickly.
By the way, 2 of SportsCenter's Top 10 plays tonight were from the Hopkins-Virginia game. They were pheonomenal plays worthy of the top 10!
(I'm a coach now and I'm going to teach my 8th graders how to cheat - we may really need it!)
Thanks to everyone for responding to my N00b questions about faceoffs. Great to have a resource like mgoblog for things like this. Lacrosse is a really interesting sport and I look forward to following the Michigan program from inception to national prominence. Keep the content coming!