Only one game on the schedule today, but I have a feeling that our Empire State readers aren’t gonna mind, as the lone match-up is between Syracuse & regional rival Colgate. Directly below is a video of head coach John Desko talking to the media about the season opener and what to expect for the Orange in the 2019 season. Now, I’m obviously a Hopkins Boy through and through, but there’s nothing like seeing coach Desko holding court in front of a gaggle of Upstate New York reporters on the eve of a new Syracuse season. It just feels right.

Below is today’s Big Board. Clicking on the team name will take you to that team’s homepage, clicking on the Stream/TV cell will take you to the broadcast of the game, while the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that game. All times East Coast Standard, per usual. Let’s go to the Big Board!!

Preview

Syracuse vs. Colgate:

Tonight is the 61st meeting between the two schools in a series that dates back to the Harding administration in 1921. Syracuse has a commanding 48-11-1 edge in the series and the Raiders haven’t won a game versus the Orange since 2008. Nevertheless, despite the lack of success in recent years, this game has significant buzz for Colgate as they come into the contest with an entirely new look from last year’s squad that went 7-8, as the team hired new head coach Matt Karweck after the conclusion of the 2018 season.

Karweck was hired in July of last year after spending six years at Notre Dame as an assistant. Coach Karweck had a good playing career in his younger days, as he had 60 goals and 30 assists in four years at Notre Dame (‘06). Additionally, he had a successful tenure at Notre Dame as an assistant coach, as he helped the Fighting Irish go 64-30 during his time there, with six NCAA Tournament appearances, including making it all the way to Memorial Day Monday in 2014 where the team lost to Duke in the title game. Syracuse ended Colgate’s 2018 season with a 17-5 throttling at the Carrier Dome, I am sure that the Raiders would love nothing more than to give their new head coach a win in his first game with the team, while simultaneously spoiling Syracuse’s season debut.

Now, if you read Chris’ recent post on Troy Nunes about Syracuse’s scrimmage with Yale this past weekend, you’d know that that the Orange struggled versus the Bulldogs last Saturday. Yes it was only a scrimmage, but Yale had no problem scoring on Syracuse, as they led 17-6 after three quarters. Syracuse closed the gap in the fourth, but still, Yale pretty clearly dominated that scrimmage. Additionally, Syracuse announced on Wednesday that midfielder Tucker Dordevic re-aggravated an injury that had kept him out of fall ball and that he might be out for an extended period of time this season. So this has not been the best of weeks for the Orange faithful.

Nevertheless, things aren’t all doom and gloom for Syracuse, as the team announced that former star Ryan Powell was named as program advisor for camps, clinics and player identification, which should definitely assist in recruiting. Another bright spot for the Orange is the fact that Nate Solomon is in the line-up for Syracuse. Solomon was second on the team last year in points (37) & goals (22), and will be looked upon to improve on his 2018 production. He gave an interview and talked about what it felt like going into his senior season at Syracuse, which you can find directly below.

Attachments

Great 2019 goals, in my humble opinion: Maryland women’s lacrosse hopes to “keep winning and keep being awesome” in 2019.

For the Maryland women’s lacrosse team, a final four appearance in 2018 was relatively routine. The Terps were the reigning national champions, and led by a strong group of seniors — including all-time leading goalscorer Megan Whittle — they seemed ready to go back-to-back. But Maryland’s streak of title game appearances ended at five, as the team suffered an upset loss to Boston College in the NCAA tournament semifinals.

Heading into 2019, the Terps are the No. 2 squad in the country, despite losing Whittle and seven other seniors. Reese hopes the upcoming season is defined by the blossoming of new stars instead of the loss of old ones as the team begin the hunt for another championship.

This is a special season for the Orange, as it is the 100th season of play for the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team. 2016 was the 100th anniversary of the the first Syracuse men’s lacrosse team in 1916, however, 2019 will be the 100th actual season of play for the Orange, as Syracuse had no games in 1917 and play was suspended from 1943-1945 because of WWII.

Three questions for Marquette men’s lacrosse by Anonymous Eagle.

Last stop on the season preview train!

We’ve already taken stock of the returning guys on the Marquette men’s lacrosse roster and taken a peek at what head coach Joe Amplo has waiting for him in the new guys on the team this year. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read those, go do that now! Just click the links and off you go.

With that cheap plug out of the way, we head onwards into the questions.....

Question #1: Will last year’s struggles pay dividends for Marquette in 2019?

Last year, Marquette played 14 games. Only 10 men appeared in all 14. Remember, between the face-off unit, offensive midfields, and defensive midfields, you could have as many as 16 players as “starters” even though they’re not acknowledged as such. 16 starting spots, 10 men appearing in all 14 games. That doesn’t sound particularly great. For comparison purposes, MU had 14 guys appearing in every game back in 2017. You can see the dropoff here.

UMass looks clean in these new jerseys.

NBC 29 with a segment on UVA men’s lacrosse.

The college lacrosse season begins with a bang this weekend. It’s a Top-10 showdown, with 6th ranked Virginia playing 4th ranked Loyola in Baltimore on Saturday. Lars Tiffany begins his third season as head coach of the ‘Hoos. The team returns it’s top two scorers from last season, All-Americans Michael Kraus and Dox Aitken. Virginia beat Loyola 13-12 in overtime in the season opener last year, but the Greyhounds ended UVa’s season with a 14-12 victory in the NCAA Tournament.

Great video of coach of Robert Moriss head coach Drew McMinn.

Speaking of Robert Morris, the team announced that this weekend’s game at Penn State has been moved indoors.

JHU men’s lacrosse has high hopes going into 2019.

Every Memorial Day, men’s lacrosse comes to a close, and teams turn the page to a new season. New faces come, old faces return and valuable faces leave. The fall and summer become endless, as the anticipation of the first game of the season grows ever larger.

For the 2019 Blue Jays, the anticipation will come to a head on Saturday, Feb. 9 during a matchup with crosstown rival Towson University and once again on Saturday, Feb. 16 during the Battle of Charles Street against Loyola University Maryland. Two weeks, two rivalry games, a schedule that will force the Blue Jays to come out of the gate firing in 2019.

The Jays will do so while trying to replace a talented senior class with a significant amount of experience and a dash of youth. This year’s freshman class was ranked fifth in the nation by Inside Lacrosse and is headlined by the nation’s number one overall recruit, attacker Joey Epstein.