LAXFU Lacrosse News Blog

BALTIMORE, Md. – Colin Briggs scored five goals and was named the Most Outstanding Player as the No. 7 seed Virginia Cavaliers (13-5) put their stamp on the program’s fifth NCAA National Championship with a 9-7 triumph over the unseeded Maryland Terrapins (13-5) on Monday afternoon, in front of 35,661 fans inside M&T Bank Stadium.

Virginia became the lowest seed (No. 7) and first five-loss team to win a men’s lacrosse national championship. The ACC now has 12 all-time NCAA titles, the most of any conference. Virginia now has won NCAA titles in 1972, 1999, 2003, 2006 and 2011.

“The fact that we are here right now is a credit to the team and my family and the people at Virginia,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “We had to reconfigure ourselves midway through the season – they had to decide that it was important enough to pick themselves up and get going again. The game today epitomized the kind of season that we’ve had – that we have started out well – put some goals in the second quarter when we got ahead a little bit and gave us some confidence going into the locker room. I am very proud of these guys and what they have done.”

UVa goalie Adam Ghitelman concludes his career with 50 career wins in between the pipes and No. 3 all-time among NCAA Division I goalies. Ghitelman finishes his career with 586 career saves, good for No. 2 all-time in the UVa annals.

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ANN ARBOR – University of Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon announced today (May 25) the elevation of men’s and women’s lacrosse to varsity status. The men’s program will begin NCAA-Division I varsity competition in the 2011-12 academic year and the women’s program will be ready for NCAA-Division I varsity competition in the 2012-13 academic year.

“Our department has carefully considered the elevation of lacrosse to varsity status and we feel the time is right to make this move,” said Brandon. “The men’s program is further developed based on their history of success in the club-varsity system. We plan to build upon that success at the next level. Our women’s program will require more time to build, but I am confident within a reasonable timeframe we will become competitive nationally in women’s lacrosse.”

Michigan is the first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) conference school to add men’s lacrosse since Notre Dame added the sport in 1980 and started competition in 1981. Michigan will join Ohio State and Penn State as the only schools in the Big Ten Conference to sponsor men’s lacrosse. Continue reading →

Someone wake me up… I fell asleep during the Maryland/Syracuse game in Foxboro.  There were 11 stall warnings against Maryland, and there probably should have been 50.  Someone please add the shot clock before it becomes the slowest game on two feet.  Congrats to Maryland for knocking of the top seed, but I’m not sure how good a team can feel about playing that style of lacrosse.  Syracuse should also be questioning their approach, as they didn’t seem to mind playing in slow motion.

For the sake of the game, let’s hope the teams actually play transition lacrosse in Baltimore before ESPN cancels their coverage.

Denver and Virginia both put on great shows this weekend.  Virginia looked more than questionable throughout the season, but came ready to play as they steamrolled Cornell (without the Bratton brothers).   Denver is is firing on all cylinders at the perfect time.  They controlled a very powerful Hopkins team in the semifinals, without taking the air out of the ball.