Lacrosse Preview- May 8

We start the preview in Baltimore where #8 Johns Hopkins hosts Brown tomorrow. Hopkins has won six games in a row and has played in the last two national championship games. Brown hasn’t been in the tournament since 1997. I like Hopkins in a close game. The game starts at noon and will be on ESPN2 and ESPNU. UMBC is also in action tomorrow when they travel to #6 North Carolina. The key to this game will be face offs. The Tar Heels are winning  62% while UMBC has struggled. If the Retrievers can find a way to neutralize them they can hold the ball and let them stay in the
game. This game starts at 2:30 and will be on ESPNU. Later in the day Navy travels to #3 Duke. Navy had last week off after winning the Patriot League tournament. Duke has won 7 straight including 2 wins over Virginia. This game is at 7:30 on ESPNU. The other game tomorrow is at 5pm when Hofstra travels to #5 Cornell also on ESPNU. Sunday starts at noon in South Bend where #7 Notre Dame hosts Maryland. The Irish enter the contest undefeated but didn’t play a strong schedule. The Terps on the other hand have played a decent schedule but had a disappointing season. As I mentioned in last week’s recap this game marks the return of Will Yeatman to Notre Dame. He spent his freshman year there before transferring to Maryland. The other games are #1 Virginia hosting Villanova at 2:30, #4 Princeton hosting UMASS at 5:00 and #2 Syracuse hosting Siena at 7:30. All games will be on ESPNU.

In division three, Salisbury will travel to Haverford (Have-r-ford) tomorrow at 1:00. The school is located outside of Philadelphia PA. It is Salisbury’s first NCAA tournament road game in seven years. Haverford also has a goalie that is 6′4″ 273 pounds. This will present a challenge for the Sea Gulls who don’t normally shoot against a goalie of that size.

I will recap all of this action on Monday

Bryan in Annapolis