Photo by Ray Nelson
Denver coach Bill Tierney and his Duke counterpart, John Danowski, shake hands after the teams’ regular-season meeting, won by Denver 12-9. If the teams both win today in the Final Four, it will be a Denver vs. Duke NCAA Division I title game on Memorial Day.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend, gang.
By the time today is over, we will know what two teams will be playing for the Division I men’s national championship on Memorial Day.
More on that in a moment.
But first, several more high school conference championships were decided yesterday, highlighted by the FCIAC.
Led by the five-goal, two-assist effort of Duke-bound junior attackman Case Matheis, top-seeded Darien held on a for a 10-7 win over third-seeded Ridgefield at Brien McMahon High School for its first conference crown since 2008.
It was Darien’s 12th FCIAC title and 11th straight win. Matheis now has 42 goals and 33 assists (75 points this season).
You can read msgvarsity.com’s John Malone’s story on the game, see a photo gallery and video highlights by clicking here.
Meanwhile, on Long Island, the Suffolk County Class A title game is now set. West Islip prevailed 6-2 over Connetquot and Smithtown West pulled away for a surprisingly one-sided 15-7 win over Ward Melville. WI and SW will play on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Stony Brook University, with the winning advancing to the Long Island championship game June 4 back at Stony Brook.
Don’t forget, you can check out the entire downstate New York sectional schedule by clicking here. For the brackets for the state tournament, click here.
Back to CT. Fairfield Prep, which fell to Cheshire three times last season, including in the Division L state title game, easily handled the Rams 11-1 in the SCC title game.
Newtown won the SWC championship by beating New Fairfield 12-7.
Today, the CIAC tournament gets under way with qualifying-round game.
Among the games, No. 21 Stamford at No. 12 Greenwich and No. 17 Cheshire at No. 16 Danbury in Division L.
You can check out the brackets for divisions L, M and S below:
In case you missed it, a total of 15 players from the nation’s No. 1 hotbed for lacrosse, the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region, have been selected to play for the North team at the sixth annual Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic.
You can find out check out the rosters for the game by clicking here.
Now, to college.
Today is arguably the most awaited day of the college season — Final Four Day. Both games, and Monday’s 3:30 p.m. title game, will be played at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Denver, the No. 6 seed, meets No. 7 Virginia in today’s first semi at 4 p.m. Then, at 6:30 p.m., defending national champion Duke, the fifth seed, squares off against unseeded Maryland.
Both games will be on ESPN2. The title game on Monday will be on ESPN.
The New York Times explores Denver’s quest to become the first D-I men’s national champion from a state that is not in the East Coast. You can read the story by clicking here.
Five other NCAA championships will also be decided this weekend: Division I women’s, Division II men’s and women’s and Division III men’s and women’s. The D-I women’s final is set for Sunday at Stony Brook as No. 1 Maryland takes on No. 2 Northwestern at Stony Brook at 4 p.m.
You can get the men’s and women’s brackets for all three divisions by clicking here.
Enjoy today’s games, and be sure to weigh in here with your predictions before the games, and thoughts during it.
Finally, be sure to weigh in by voting in our latest poll, which will be rotating questions on the upcoming playoff matchups.
To vote, go to the right panel of this page. Then, just scroll past the “New Comments” and “Popular” tabs and click on “Poll,” and then cast your vote from the choices available, or write in your choice if it’s not listed.
You can reach us by email at info@laxlessons.com.
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NCAA tournament schedule
For a rundown of scores and schedules for the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments, click here.
Put those cell phones to good use
Be sure, as always, to weigh in with info/thoughts/scores on games you attend. And don’t forget to put those mobile phones to good use in providing in-game updates, gang. If it’s easier, you may also send your updates to info@laxlessons.com.
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Posted In: College lacrosse, fciac, SCC lacrosse, Section 11, SWC lacrosse
Denver 9, UVa 8
Duke 10, Maryland 7
From today’s qualifying round of the CIAC Division L tournament:
No. 12 Greenwich 16, No. 21 Stamford 4
Greenwich advances to Wednesday’s first-round at No. 4 Glastonbury.
You can view the Division L bracket here:
http://www.casciac.org/scripts/display_bracket.cgi?sport=lac&class=L&year=2011
For Division M:
http://www.casciac.org/scripts/display_bracket.cgi?sport=lac&class=M&year=2011
For Division S:
http://www.casciac.org/scripts/display_bracket.cgi?sport=lac&class=S&year=2011
Nice group of players from the area in the Under Armour game including Eric Parnon. Just noticed the story now…
http://www.laxlessons.com/blog/2011/05/region-will-be-well-represented-at-under-armour-all-america-game/
Under the wire: Va 8-5 over Denver, MD 7-6 over Duke – anybody but Duuuuke!
Know he’s a legend and in his own way I’m sure probably does really care for the kids.
But in that pre-game locker room scene when he was giving a pep talk and said “let’s go out and have fun like we’ve had all yr”—the really growled look on his face made me think: Is it really fun to play for him?
I am sure Faus isn’t having fun, no D support, 3 man up goals? several one on ones – toughest position in lacrosse. One of the top freshman goalies this year.
There are former John Jay players in both the national championships for DI and DIII (Bocklet-virginia, Bohlander- Maryland, Granelli-Salisbury, Durst-Tufts). Either way a JJ grad is winning the title for both, Congrats guys!
Zack Waldman also plays for Tufts .