2018 college lacrosse tournaments: How to watch today’s other NCAA and MCLA games

Many of you will be focused on today’s Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. And that’s completely fine.

BUT what if some of those games become blowouts? No need to worry, because there’s plenty of other exciting tournament action across the country! They’ll be two national championships given out as well out in Salt Lake City! One of them involves a former NCAA team!

And that’s where we’ll start!

MCLA Division I Championship

Let’s see how these teams did in the semifinals to get to today’s finale:

For Chapman, Dylan Garner put up five goals and one assist, while Wiley Bonham scored a trio of goals and a pair of assists. The Panthers will head to their third straight national championship game. They lost last year to Grand Canyon after defeating Cal Poly in 2016.

For Michigan State, Bennett Osterink spearheaded Sparty with three goals and two assists, with Brett Braun contributing with three goals and one assist. FOGO Hunter Stephans played a huge role in Michigan State’s win, going 16-of-23 from the face-of X and scooping up a game-high 11 ground balls. It’ll be their first ever national championship appearance.

MCLA Division II Championship

St. Thomas will play in their third straight national championship, looking for their sixth title in the process. North Dakota State will make their first national championship appearance after falling to Concordia-Irvine in last year’s semifinals.

The semifinals were played early Thursday. Recaps are available here, along with the previous MCLA games.

NCAA Men’s Division II First Round

Despite the lack of overall teams in Division II, that doesn’t mean the competition is poor. In fact, you could argue it’s even stronger with very few teams.

We’re guaranteed to have a new national champion after Limestone failed to make it to the postseason. Who it will be we don’t know. A team like Tampa that has been good for a handful of years would love to get to Foxborough and win it all to grow the sport in Florida. But a team like Merrimack would love to return to the title game and win one right in their backyard.

NCAA Men’s Division III Third Round

How many blowouts will we see this time? Most of these teams are pretty good, but I suspect maybe one or two blowouts today before things get going again next week. There’s a handful of rematches from the regular season (and conference tournaments) that should set up some entertaining lacrosse.

NCAA Women’s Division II Second Round

I can’t believe they’re playing games a day after the First Round. Kinda ridiculous if you ask me. But if a #2 seed can pull off an upset, was it worth the lack of rest? Probably.

NCAA Women’s Division III First/Second Round

Two rounds are being played today. Well, mainly one. The Transylvania-Rhodes game is the only Second Round game today, for some reason. The rest of the Second Round is tomorrow. Again, another back-to-back. Make it stop.