College Crosse Game Day: How To Watch, Attachments, & Open Thread For April 30, 2017

SELECTION SUNDAY IS A WEEK AWAY! A. WEEK. AWAY. The first two conference championships will be decided today in the ACC and the Patriot League. The ACC does not have an automatic qualifier this year, and North Carolina has to win in order to be above .500.

Below is today’s Big Board. Clicking on the team name will take you to that team’s homepage. Clicking on the Stream cell will take you to the broadcast of that game, while the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that game. Cells with $$ signs in them indicate streams that require a subscription or a pay wall. Everything else should be free or on your basic ESPN plan. Let’s go to the Big Board!!

Skittles Scale! (Ed. Note: For entertainment and informational purposes only!! #WeDoNotEndorseGambling!!)

Game Previews

North Carolina vs. Notre Dame: The two lower seeds once again advance to the ACC Championship game for the fourth straight year. This year, it’s not Duke-Syracuse, as it has been for the past two seasons. Cuse isn’t even in this year’s version. UNC led the Orange 13-4 at halftime, but the Orange scored eight straight goals in the third quarter to make it a one-goal game, but the Heels held up and won by...one goal, 16-15.. Notre Dame also won by one in a more low-scoring game. Ryder Garnsey is in a boot, and Sergio Perkovic doesn’t look the same. But Bryan Costabile scored a hat-trick in the 8-7 win. The statuses of Garnsey and Perkovic will be a huge factor in this game today, as UNC needs to win in order to be in consideration for an at-large birth in the NCAA Tournament.

Army West Point vs. Loyola: This game is held at Ridley once again, and the Greyhounds hope to win the PL’s AQ. They’ve won the last four meetings against the Black Knights and haven’t lost to Army since April 21, 2015. The Greyhounds had a slow start against Holy Cross, but managed to go on a nine-goal run in the second half for a big 13-3 win. Army jumped ahead 4-0 in the first quarter, before Boston University came to within one. The Black Knights never lost their early lead, and hope to break their struggles against Loyola. The Patriot League will probably be a one-bid league, but Army does have Notre Dame in their final regular season game next Saturday.

Penn State @ Michigan: This game doesn’t really matter, as Penn State is the number four seed and will play Maryland in the Big Ten semifinals. Michigan is only playing this game for Senior Day and they also have to under Big Ten rules. The Wolverines hope to play spoiler and get their first Big Ten win this season. Penn State will try and get their wheels turning and get ready for the Terps on Thursday.

Attachments

Conference semifinal recaps for North Carolina, Notre Dame, Army West Point, and Loyola.

Here are the conference tournaments in graphics!

Three things to watch for today’s ACC championship game from ND-Atl of 18 Stripes.

1. Stay healthy and keep your eyes on the prize: An ACC title would be awesome, but we here at Team ND-Atl are 100% focused on the big kahuna: the Memorial Day weekend #BigBBQ, the national championship. We trust the coaching and medical staff to make wise decision regarding the play of Garnsey and Perkovic so that they are not out for the season.

Three things to watch for today’s Patriot League championship game from Edward Lee of The Baltimore Sun.

1) Cooling off Jacob Stover. The Loyola sophomore goalkeeper has been a wall, giving up only a total of nine goals while turning aside 24 combined shots in victories over Army and Holy Cross. In both contests, Stover made eight saves each in the first half and shut out each offense for at least a 25-minute span. The Black Knights failed to solve the Hunt Valley resident and McDonogh graduate in the final 25 minutes of their regular-season meeting, and coach Joe Alberici said Army must turn up the heat on Stover.

“When you look at that first half, we were down 8-5, and I thought the difference was Stover had made a couple huge saves,” Alberici said. “I don’t think [sophomore goalie] A.J. [Barretto] let in anything that he shouldn’t have, but that was the difference. That was clearly the difference.”

Take a look at today’s Prospectus!

Song of the Day

Championship time means championship music.

Games start at noon! I’ll see you out there!!