Over twenty match-ups throughout the day today, with most of them available via stream. Directly below is the Big Board for February 9th. As usual, clicking on the team name will take you to that team’s homepage, while clicking on the Stream/TV cell will take you to the broadcast of that game. Additionally, clicking the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that particular game. All times Eastern Standard Time.

Games To Watch

Loyola vs. UVA: Hounds vs. Cavs is probably the best game on the board today, as it features two teams ranked in the top 7. This is the 24th meeting between the two schools in a series that has been especially close over the last five years. Indeed, while UVA has won four of the last five, all four of those UVA wins came by either one point or in overtime. Loyola lost significant pieces from last year’s defense, including Foster Huggins who led Division I with a program record 52 CTS in 2018. Nevertheless, the Hounds still have Pat Spencer, a multiple First Team USILA All-American and a three-time Patriot League Player of the Year. With Spencer leading the charge, I believe Loyola will get the win in Ridley today.

Penn State vs. Robert Morris: We won’t be able to actually watch this one, as the game has been moved indoors, but this is definitely one of the more interesting games to follow along today. Penn State blitzed Villanova last weekend 17-7 to avenge an overtime loss to the Wildcats last year. Grant Ament had a great game against Villanova and finished with 10 points last Saturday. While Penn State has Ament back and a plethora of weapons, don’t sleep on the Colonials, as Robert Morris has play-makers as well. Additionally, they have arguably one of the top two or three goaltenders in the nation in Alex Heger. The RMU goalie is coming off a big year in 2018 and looks to continue his stellar play in 2019. We have seen a couple examples already this season where goaltenders got hot and helped their team steal a win they might otherwise have not gotten. I think Penn State wins this one, but it might be closer than PSU fans would like if Heger has a big game.

Johns Hopkins vs. Towson: This will be the 47th game between the two Charm City rivals. While Hopkins has a 41-5 advantage in the series, if you ask any Hopkins fan, and they will certainly tell you that having to play Towson early in the season the last few several years has not been fun. Hopkins returns Kyle Marr & Cole Williams on offense and a very sharp defense led by Patrick Foley, but they will have to fill in pieces at goal and face-off after losing Brock Turnbaugh & Hunter Moreland to graduation last year.

Maryland vs. Richmond: This is another game to keep your eye on today. Richmond made it to the NCAA Tournament last year and returns a lot from last year’s 2018 team. The Spiders were the preseason pick to win the Southern Conference in 2019 and they have a dynamic player in senior attackman Teddy Hatfield. I don’t expect Maryland to get upset today, but Richmond is a good team and given what happened to Duke & Syracuse this week, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Spiders gave Maryland a tough time today in College Park.

College Crosse Week 1 Picks

Adam posted our Week 1 picks yesterday. You should check them out.

We’re on to week 1, the first “official” week of the D1 mens lacrosse season after last weekend’s abbreviated Week 0. We’ve got a full slate of games to choose from, so hopefully that means Safe will get more wrong this time around.

Here are the standings after last week:

1. Me (5-0)

2. Safe (4-1)

2. Jake (4-1)

5. Ryan (3-2)

5. Chris (3-2)

I was the only one to pick BU over Providence, and thus the spotless 5-0 record. This week should be much tougher though, as a couple of the games are essentially toss-ups.

Attachments

Tennis, anyone?

Check out our College Crossecast 2019 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Preview Part 2.

In our second part of our NCAA Women’s Lacrosse season previews for College Crossecast, it’s time to take a look at the state of the sport. And while other sports may have a hard look at themselves (hi, baseball and how you still haven’t signed anyone), women’s lacrosse is in a very good spot– and clearing some final obstacles might make it explode even more.

On this edition, Skyler and I are joined by an old pal of the blog, Boston Herald reporter Marisa Ingemi, as we discuss women’s lax as well as dabbling a bit in women in sports in general (1:00, plus Marisa got a front page article in the Herald on the subject right when we recorded and all). We once again praise the NCAA’s new rules (5:00) before getting into the debate on access to the game with television coverage (10:00). The pre-college levels of girls’ lacrosse are continuing to climb and are now following some of the new rules, so we dabble into that as well (21:00).

Colgate defeated Syracuse last night for the first time since 2008.

The Colgate and Syracuse lacrosse teams not only flipped the date of their annual meeting in 2019 from the end of the season to the start, the switched their roles as well.

Friday, the Raiders were no longer the rebuilding underdog. They were the poised team that owned the Carrier Dome turf.

And the Orange wasn’t a top-20 squad that had pounded its rival in six straight games and held a 49-11-1 edge in the series. It was a tentative squad still in search of an awful lot of answers.

It was a stunning reversal that produced a eye-popping result: Colgate came into the Dome and stole No. 11 SU’s lunch money to the tune of a 12-9 win. It was only the second time the Orange dropped a season-opener in the Dome in 25 such games.

New faces at Hofstra, but the team is still ready to fight.

While some teams view the start of a season as a figurative rebirth, the phrase “new team” will take on a more literal meaning for Hofstra men’s lacrosse in 2019.

The Pride graduated 18 players, including seven starters, from last year’s squad that went 6-8, leaving coach Seth Tierney with an abundance of fresh faces.

“I have to keep looking down at my roster [at practice],” joked Tierney regarding his team’s 16 freshmen. “It’s unprecedented in Division I, when you have a team of 40 and change and you lose 18. We have a lot of young guys running around out there, but we like the guys. The one thing that we’re lacking is game experience.

“We’re young but that doesn’t mean we’re bad and it doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot of fight in us.”

Holy Cross is ready to kick off their 2019 season.

NBA superstar Steph Curry took some time from his shootaround at ASU to hang with the Sun Devils women’s lacrosse team.

Warriors’ Stephen Curry shows off skills to ASU women’s lacrosse team originally appeared on nbcsportsbayarea.com The Warriors are in Arizona gearing up to take on the Phoenix Suns on Friday night. But it’s not the Suns who had Stephen Curry showing off his skills -- it was the women’s lacrosse team at Arizona State University.

Games start in a a little over three hours. I’ll see you out there.