Vol. 3: Patriot League Boasts Three Undefeated Teams Through Week 3
The Patriot League has been owned by Loyola the last decade. The Greyhounds appear to have some competition, at least in the early going.
Jolie Riedell makes a move to the cage in a 10-5 win over then-No. 9 Rutgers on Feb. 25. Riedell had two goals and four draws in the victory. Photo courtesy: Army Athletics.
Right now, Patriot League women’s lacrosse looks like GameStop stock in spring 2021—it’s booming. Army (4-0), Boston University (5-0) and Loyola (2-0) are all undefeated, making the Patriot League the only conference in the country with three perfect teams.
Let’s start with Army. The Black Knights picked up their first top-10 win in program history on Saturday, beating then-No. 9 Rutgers, 10-5, at a snowy Michie Stadium. Simply put, Army came ready to play. It jumped all over a staunch Rutgers defense, scoring five goals in the first quarter. Freshman middie Brigid Duffy finished with three goals, and the Scarlet Knights committed 20 turnovers. Junior goalie Lacey Bartholomay provided a huge boost, making 12 saves and allowing just five goals. She had 19 stops earlier in the month against Jacksonville, and she’s second nationally in save percentage (.654). Army checked into the Inside Lacrosse poll for the first time this week, ranked No. 16.
2022 was a down year for the BU, to say the least. The Terriers finished with two wins, the fewest in a single season in program history. Clearly, head coach Lauren Morton and a senior-laden squad came into 2023 with something to prove. Returning their top-10 (!) scorers from a season ago, the Terriers are 5-0 and have recorded three road wins. Senior midfielder Jennifer Barry was an All-American in 2022, and she’s already got 20 points this year. Barry is BU’s career draws leader, and she’s led the Terriers to third in the nation in draw control percentage (67.6%). Strength of schedule has been weak for BU so far, but it takes on Army in its Patriot League opener on March 11.
Oh, and Loyola is still Loyola. The No. 8 Greyhounds have a pair of wins over Johns Hopkins and Towson, led by junior attacker Sydni Black. She scored two goals in the opener and then put up seven points against Towson (5 goals, 2 assists). If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that the Patriot League is Loyola’s to lose. The Greyhounds have won the regular season crown every year since 2014. Can Army or BU challenge the top dogs in 2023?
Other Storylines to Know:
1. Maryland avoids a second loss and fends off Florida on the road in a game of runs. Terrapins junior attacker Victoria Hensch scored the game-winner with 17 ticks remaining Saturday. After the first quarter, though, it didn’t look like the Terps were going to need late-game heroics in their top-10 matchup in Gainesville. After all, Maryland had staked itself to a 7-4 lead through one frame. But, in due time, the Gators answered with a 6-0 run that was fueled by five goals from Emma LoPinto and Maggi Hall, both of whom finished with four scores.
Maryland entered the fourth quarter with a 10-8 deficit. Like the opening period, however, head coach Cathy Reese’s team enjoyed offensive success in the final 15 minutes of action. Except, even though the Libby May-led Terps began the quarter with a 5-1 surge, Florida tied things up at 13-13 with 1:19 to go. A minute later, Hensch came charging in from beyond the 12-meter arc and fired just past the eight meter for goal, pushing Maryland to 8-1 all-time against Florida. The Gators couldn’t avenge their Elite Eight loss from last year, and May was named the IWLCA Offensive Player of the Week after a pair of six-goal outings, first against Drexel and then at Florida.
2. BC gets payback against Duke and gets the best of Maddie Jenner on the draw. The Blue Devils spoiled Charlotte North’s return trip to Durham last season with a 16-15 upset win. In that game, Maddie Jenner—now the NCAA’s all-time draw control winner—helped Duke establish a 20-14 advantage in the circle against a BC team that finished the season 21st in draw control percentage (54.4%). This time around, the Eagles got the Blue Devils in Chestnut Hill and dominated the draw, 20-9, en route to a 17-8 victory.
Senior defender Hollie Schleicher makes her way past Duke draw specialist Maddie Jenner. Schleicher had seven draws in the game. Photo courtesy: John Quackenbos/BC Athletics.
Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s team is now up to 13th nationally in the circle with a draw control percentage of 62.0%. Midfielder Andrea Reynolds led the team with eight draws, but defender Hollie Schleicher wasn’t far behind with seven. Schleicher was a big part of an Eagles defense that bottled up Duke—previously the third-ranked scoring offense—and limited the Blue Devils to just eight goals. BC goalie Rachel Hall, who made nine saves versus Duke, is having a bounce-back season so far. Her .519 save percentage is 20th nationally. BC is back in the win column after a one-goal loss at No. 3 Northwestern. Now, the Eagles travel to play their archrival, top-ranked North Carolina, which beat them three times last year, most notably in the national title game.
3. Notre Dame puts away upstart Clemson in the fourth quarter. The Tigers are no joke. That’s clear as day. After outscoring their first four opponents, 85-7, they got the first test of their debut season: an ACC opener at Notre Dame. And Clemson held its own, even taking an 8-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Davidson grad transfer Gianna New paced the Tigers offensively with a hat trick. New is forming a 1-2 punch with Hanna Hilcoff, who leads the team with 21 goals on the year. But sophomore goalie Emily Lamparter, a Maryland transfer, was Clemson’s most impressive performer. She kept the Tigers in the game with 16 saves, while Notre Dame held advantages of 36-22 in shots, 16-8 in draw controls and 19-15 in ground balls.
Clemson actually scored the first goal of the fourth quarter before Notre Dame closed the day with five straight scores, all from different players. Jackie Wolak scored one and assisted two others. She notched a hat trick, and so did Kasey Choma. Notre Dame head coach Christine Halfpenny’s team was pretty sound defensively, forcing 14 turnovers. Sophomore Julia Carr was responsible for a career-high three of them. The Fighting Irish are 3-1, the inverse record of last year’s slow start.
4. Michigan survives a scare from Central Michigan. The Chippewas came close, oh so close, to beating Michigan for the first time in program history on Sunday. After falling behind, 3-0, toward the end of the first quarter, CMU outscored the Wolverines, 5-2, across the second and third to tie the game, 5-5. A trio of free-position goals from senior midfielder Audrey Whiteside, graduate attacker Maggie Diebold and sophomore attacker Reagan Martinsen capped off the four-goal run and put the Wolverines on their heels. On the other end of the field, sophomore goalie Alexa Martel stood on her head. She allowed seven goals and tallied 16 saves, making her tied for seventh all-time in single-game saves in CMU history.
Michigan didn’t flinch, though. They outshot CMU, 31-20, and more than doubled up the Chippewas in ground balls (27-13). Michigan sophomore attacker Kaylee Dyer chose a good day for her first-career hat trick, and junior midfielder Josie Gooch scored the game-winner on the left side of the arc with just 2:08 to play. The Wolverines won, 7-6. Junior defender Maddie Burns picked up the Big Ten Defender of the Week nod after her four ground balls, four caused turnovers and two draw controls. Michigan’s next test is later today at No. 9 Denver. As for CMU, it faces Towson on Saturday and looks to make back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in team history.
5. Villanova stays perfect with an overtime win against Navy. After building Drexel into an NCAA Tournament team, Jill Batcheller left the Dragons for Villanova. In her first year at the helm, the Wildcats wound up 5-11. That included a 1-5 record in their first six games. Villanova is off to a much better start in Year Two of Batcheller’s stay. An undefeated start, actually. The Wildcats improved to 4-0 with an 11-10 win over Navy that needed an extra frame and a game-winner from sophomore attacker Sami Carey.
Carey’s classmate, Sydney Pappas, led the team with five goals. Pappas, also a sophomore attacker, is at the forefront of Villanova’s offense this season with 22 points (18 goals, 4 assists). Navy boasted a halftime lead, thanks to a 4-0 run to end the second quarter. Of those four goals, three were scored by senior attacker Charlotte Ryan, who notched all four of her scores in the first half. Nova and Navy traded flurries in the final two quarters, with the Mids using a 3-1 surge in the fourth to force overtime. Carey took care of things from there. Villanova found a way to win, despite losing the ground ball battle, 20-10, committing 20 turnovers and having five fewer shots on goal than Navy. The Wildcats have some thanks to give netminder Olivia Conquest, who turned away 11 shots in the win. Next up? No. 19 USC.
6. LIU beats Vermont in midweek battle of mid-majors. Somewhere, Will Ferrell is smiling, because a pod of tuna just defeated a lion in a fight. Well, kinda. The Long Island Sharks downed Vermont in a 10-9 overtime thriller last Wednesday in Brookville, New York. After 15 minutes, LIU led, 5-1, and senior attacker Hannah Kenneally scored or assisted on three of the team’s first quarter goals. The Catamounts clawed back, winning each of the next three quarters to force overtime. Then, with less than a minute left in the extra frame, Kenneally struck again.
She stood deep in the far-side corner and signaled to the rest of her team to clear out. After 15 seconds of bobbing at the top of the arc, she leaned right, then cut back left. Sprinting downhill, she fired into the goal’s top-left corner. Game over. Kenneally was named a NEC prime performer of the week, and freshman midfielder Julia Trainor nabbed her third straight NEC Rookie of the Week award after two goals and four draw controls.
Both LIU and Vermont were well respected before the season. Head coach Meghan McNamara’s Sharks were picked second in the NEC preseason poll and earned four first-place votes. Sarah Dalton Graddock’s Vermont squad came in as the preseason favorites in the America East, also with four first-place votes. You’ll be hearing from both of these programs come conference tournament time.
Weekly Focus:
IS THE IVY LEAGUE UP FOR GRABS IN THE POST-CHRIS SAILER ERA?
The last time an Ivy not named Princeton won the conference tournament was in 2016. Cornell downed the Tigers, 10-9, in overtime in the semifinals and went on to beat Penn by one in the championship.
The last time an Ivy not named Princeton won the conference regular season outright was in 2013. Penn finished a perfect 7-0 in Ivy play, and Princeton had a down year. The Tigers went 6-1.
Former Princeton head coach Chris Sailer is a titan of the sport, and newly retired. After 433 wins, 27 NCAA Tournament appearances, 16 Ivy titles and three national championships, Sailer passed the reins to her long-time assistant Jenn Cook. Princeton is still the conference favorite, but we think the Ivy will be fascinating to watch this season.
Yale sophomore attacker Jenna Collignon celebrates one of her 10 goals of 2023. Photo courtesy: Same Rubin/Yale Athletics.
Early on, the rest of the Ancient Eight have impressed in the non-conference. Yale is ranked No. 22 and played No. 6 Stony Brook tough, falling, 13-7. The Bulldogs were even with the Seawolves in draws and had more ground balls. Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina said Yale is his pick to win the Ivy. Penn upset then-No. 16 Johns Hopkins, 13-12, in overtime last Saturday. The Quakers had seven scorers with multiple points, led by sophomore midfielder Olivia Kehoe (4 goals). Penn has a chance at another ranked win today when they take on No. 8 Loyola. Cornell started 3-0 with wins over Albany, Colgate and Cal before losing, 17-12, to No. 17 Stanford on Monday. Sophomore goalie Ellie Horner picked up Ivy Defensive Player of the Week for her 8.50 goal against average and .605 save percentage against the Raiders and Golden Bears.
Big Red junior midfielder Caitlin Slaminko scored two goals in Cornell’s victory over in-state rival Colgate. Photo courtesy: Dan Zehr/Cornell Athletics.
Brown has something to prove, too. If not for a fourth-quarter collapse in its 2022 finale against Harvard, it would have been the Bears, not the Crimson, as the No. 4 seed in the Ivy Tournament. So far, Brown has a win over Hofstra and a close loss to Albany. Speaking of Harvard, it’s 0-2 with respectable losses. The Crimson fell in Ann Arbor to a ranked Michigan team and then lost by one at home to Georgetown. Brown hosts Harvard on Saturday.
Dartmouth returns its top-four scorers from 2022 and got a clutch win over New Hampshire in its season opener. Columbia has already matched its win total from last season. Head coach Anne Murray is in Year Two of rebuilding the Lions program. Fittingly, she played under Sailer at Princeton and served on her staff for five seasons.
While Sailer won’t be roaming the sidelines this year, her impact will be felt in the conference for years to come. And, in 2023, the Ivy League just might have a new champion.
Numbers to Know:
.674 – Clemson goalie and Maryland transfer Emily Lamparter boasts the top save percentage in the country through five games. She’s allowed 14 goals and has made 29 saves. In each of the first four games she played 30 minutes, splitting time with both graduate Krissy Kowalski and freshman Ava Delyra. In her first 60-minute start, Lamparter stopped over half the shots she faced against Notre Dame (12 goals allowed, 16 saves).
1 – This ONE is pretty wild. See what we did there? But seriously, the Jacksonville Dolphins have committed just one foul through four games, by far the lowest total in the country. UC Davis (four), Bryant (seven) and American (seven) all still have single-digit fouls, too.
5.25 – Rutgers senior defender Meghan Ball is first in the country in caused turnovers per game, and she has 21 total CTs on the season. No other player is averaging more than four per game. John Hopkins’ Reagan O’Brien is second nationally with 3.67 per contest.
Tewaaraton Watch:
POINTS LEADERS
GOALS LEADERS
NOTE: Stats correct through Feb. 26.
Inside Lacrosse Poll
Screenshots pulled from insidelacrosse.com.
The top four remained intact. Now-No. 5 Maryland swapped places with now-No. 6 Stony Brook after the Terrapins scraped out a win at Florida. The Seawolves did handle Yale, 13-7, dropping the Bulldogs from No. 22 to No. 21. Denver is back in the top 10. The Pioneers, fourth nationally in scoring defense (5.50 goals allowed per game), held Ohio State to just four goals this past weekend. Denver is followed by No. 10 Virginia, also 4-0. Duke slid out of the top 10 and into the 11th position after a 17-8 loss at No. 4 BC.
Perhaps the most notable movement was Rutgers falling five spots from No. 9 to No. 14 after its snow-ridden defeat to Army. The Black Knights, on the other hand, are 4-0 and now No. 16—talk about an entrance into the Top 25. A pair of Big Ten teams, Johns Hopkins and Michigan, both dropped three places and each have two losses on the year. Hopkins was edged by Penn, which climbed into the Top 25 this week, clocking in at No. 23. UMass is hanging on the poll’s cliff, slipping from No. 22 to No. 25 despite dominant wins over Siena and Dartmouth.
What’s Ahead?
No. 23 Penn @ No. 8 Loyola, March 1, 4 p.m.
No. 5 Maryland @ No. 12 James Madison, March 1, 5 p.m.
No. 15 Princeton @ No. 14 Rutgers, March 1, 6 p.m.
No. 4 BC @ No. 1 UNC, March 3, 4 p.m.
No. 6 Stony Brook @ No. 17 Stanford, March 3, 7 p.m.
No. 9 Denver @ No. 5 Maryland, March 5, 12 p.m.
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