Men's Lacrosse Home Vs. Marquette 3PM Today
Men's lacrosse is already underway at the State Street facility as they host the Marquette Golden Eagles. The game is streaming on BTN++++++.
Michigan (2-1) took care of business in a midweek game against Canisius on Tuesday, coming away with a drama-free 19-8 victory. Marquette is the easiest game remaining on their schedule so it's another must-win if they want to pile up some OOC wins.
Typically, Marquette is no slouch and they have done very well since making the jump to Division 1, qualifying for the tournament a handful of times. However, they're coming off a 4-11 season in 2022. But, Michigan eked out a 12-10 W against them last year.
Marquette is a potentially very tricky opponent and this is a game that Michigan has to have for its 2023 First Ever NCAA Tournament Quest. And last I saw Marquette was up 6-2 in the first, so Michigan better get it together and fast! GO BLUE!
February 25th, 2023 at 3:49 PM ^
[EDIT: so this game is in Naples, FL actually, not Ann Arbor!]
Interesting Saturday around the rest of college lacrosse and unfortunately it's making the rest of Michigan's schedule look much harder (actually that could be a good thing). ND wiped out a G'town team that started the season ranked #3. Rutgers beat a Loyola team that started the season red-hot by handing Maryland it's first loss in 2 years. Maryland beat Princeton and Penn State pulled off an upset against Yale. So this game today is pretty crucial. GO GET 'EM AND GO BLUE!
(although I'm kind of wondering if these east coast games are being played in an ice storm and that's the reason for the low scores).
February 25th, 2023 at 4:38 PM ^
down 11-6 to start the 4th.
February 25th, 2023 at 5:13 PM ^
As a casual observer, why are we not very good?
February 25th, 2023 at 5:20 PM ^
Good question. This was a really discouraging loss. From what I've seen, they give up a lot of cheap/soft goals but they seem to be improving in that department. Offensively, they're not a great shooting team and they tend to commit unforced turnovers too often. But, still, they should've won this game, Marquette is not particularly good.
They're probably going to have to take 2 out of 3 from Delaware, Harvard and Notre Dame, if they they want to keep the dream alive. Maybe this will light a fire under them. GO BLUE.
February 26th, 2023 at 12:28 AM ^
I meant more big picture. Like it’s year 6 under Conry and we just don’t seem to have our feet under us at all as a program.
It just seems like at this stage we shouldn’t be struggling against teams like Hofstra and Marquette. Not competing with long-time East coast powers is one thing, but it seems like we’re still well behind where we should be.
As an outsider (in terms of UM lax knowledge) it seems like keeping the club coach on during the transition was unwise to begin with, but Conry hasn’t done much better in terms of elevating the program.
February 26th, 2023 at 2:13 PM ^
I should also add that they had 19 turnovers yesterday and lost the GB battle and were kind of even on FOs. That is usually a recipe for an L. Also - something is up with veteran goalie Shane Carr; he didn't play well against UVA and then got pulled in the first half vs. Hofstra and hasn't played since. I don't if it's an injury or if he's in the coaches' doghouse or what. But, that also doesn't explain why they only scored 9 goals yesterday so...
But your comment raises a lot of interesting issues. First, I would say that, while this loss was highly disappointing because this Marquette team is not great, their program is generally pretty decent. Since joining Div 1, they've knocked off powerhouse teams like Denver while also making the tournament a handful of times. Hofstra is also traditionally pretty strong with several tournament appearances and All-Americans to its name. Losses to Marquette or Hofstra won't drag down your resume most years. It's still early too so it's possible that Michigan ends up in the tournament, so I wouldn't write off the season just yet.
But what's discouraging is that Michigan hung with Virginia but...then couldn't hang with Marquette? Maybe we can chalk this up to being the first game of spring break at a weird neutral site but the lack of consistency has killed them. They'll have to kick that habit if they want a successful season.
I was thinking about this yesterday though: college lacrosse is incredibly insular. It's designed for the same teams - your Syracuses and Hopkinses of the world - to hold all the power and win all the championships year after year. Notre Dame, who is #2 in the polls right now and widely considered a blue-blood, STILL has never won a national championship. They also didn't make their first Final 4 until 20+ years after joining Division 1. Similarly, Duke was never particularly good for most of its existence, didn't make a Final 4 until 1997 and then didn't win a title until well into the 2000s. Even teams like Maryland, Cornell and North Carolina have gone decades between championships. So, it is an extremely hard club to break into and there's no recipe for immediate success.
February 25th, 2023 at 11:04 PM ^
Sucks that Michigan can’t get it going at the varsity level. Wonder how long they’ll keep the program alive.
February 26th, 2023 at 12:35 PM ^
Considering that Michigan has a stadium, locker room, and additional facilities built specifically for the lacrosse program, I would say they'll keep the program alive for a long, long time.
As a parent of a teen who plays lacrosse and has attended the Michigan Lacrosse camps a couple of times, I made an interesting observation this past summer. While waiting to pick up during a lunch break, I spoke to a woman who was there from New York who was completely blown away by the facilities here.
She said that they had attended the lacrosse camp at Syracuse (where lacrosse is a much bigger deal) and several other camps out east and very few (if any) had dedicated lacrosse facilites.
I think, given time, that Michigan will get there. It's a new program and lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports.
Over the past two years, our HS lacrosse team has had its largest participation numbers ever, while our football program is near historic lows.