The NCAA Lacrosse Final Four Is Set, And 3 Teams Have All Earned Themselves An Opportunity To Get Destroyed By Maryland
There's still a week left of the college lacrosse season. There are still 3 more games to be played. Championship Weekend will go on per usual. But none of it matter.
The 2022 Maryland Terrapins are going to cruise past Princeton on Saturday and then they'll turn right around and spank whoever comes out of that Cornell vs Rutgers game on Monday. Because this Maryland lacrosse team is going to do something that hasn't been done in 16 years. They're going to go wire-to-wire and cap off an undefeated season with a National Championship. The first team to do so since Virginia went 17-0 in 2006 and capped it off by waxing UMass 15-7 on Memorial Day.
It's not just the fact that Maryland has won all 16 of their games so far. It's the fact that they've annihilated everyone in their path. Aside from a 2-goal win on the road against Notre Dame in the beginning of March, none of their games have even been close. Rutgers is playing in the Final Four next weekend. They've already played Maryland twice. They lost those games 17-9 and then 17-7. Virginia was the 2x defending national champions. They beat Maryland in the national title game last year. They played Maryland twice this year and lost those games 23-12 and then 18-9 yesterday. Princeton plays against Maryland on Saturday, they've already lost by 5 to the Terps and that was one of the closest games that Maryland has played all year. A 5-goal win was a "nail biter" for this Terps team.
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They're dominant offensively. You make a mistake in the substitution game, it's in the back of the net. They have 9 guys on offense who could start on pretty much any team in the nation. They're dominant at the faceoff X. They're dominant at the SSDM position, with 3 Dmids getting drafted to the PLL the other week. They're dominant on defense with all of their starting defensemen, LSM and goalie getting All-American honors. It is the most completely dominant team we've ever seen, and now we get to just sit back and watch them finish out their last two games of the year.
As for the rest of the quarterfinals? It was a pretty lackluster weekend if we're being perfectly honest. The Cornell vs Delaware game never really got going. Maybe it was the fact that they were playing inside a gigantic empty stadium at Ohio State but that game lacked any sort of juice from the get go. The Rutgers vs Penn game was perfectly fine, and one of the best goaltending showdowns we'll ever see between Colin Kirst and Patrick Burkinshaw. But the real highlight of that game was Mrs. Kirst keeping the boys in line after the game.
The Kirst Bowl is actually going to be a ton of fun on Saturday with Cornell vs Rutgers. Have to imagine it'll be a tough day for Momma Kirst. But Colin Kirst is the best goalie in the nation despite what All-American polls say. CJ Kirst is a pure goal scorer. I'm sure this matchup is going to lead to a ton of heated battles in the backyard for years to come.
And then the Princeton vs Yale game was…I mean it was okay. There just never really seemed to a moment where it felt like Princeton wasn't going to win once the game got going. The only super memorable moment for me was this massive hit from George Baughan.
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What a monster.
Anyway, we talked about all of that and more on the newest episode of The Crease Dive. Only a couple more episodes left of the college season before we flip over to the PLL. It would be huge if you guys could listen, subscribe, like, comment or some sort of combination of those things as we make one final push to Memorial Day Weekend.
Listen to The Crease Dive's NCAA Quarterfinals Recap Show on Apple
Listen to The Crease Dive's NCAA Quarterfinals Recap Show on Spotify
Subscribe to The Crease Dive on YouTube
We'll be back on either Thursday or Friday with our Final Four preview show. Spoiler alert: Probably going to be a lot of Maryland talk. And here's to hoping this beauty makes the trip up from Long Island to East Hartford for the festivities.
Big time mood.