August 6, 2010
NE teams set sights on Foxboro in 2012
by Andy Vogt/
Syracuse ruled the day when the NCAA Championships were last played in Foxboro, Mass., in 2009.
More than 200,000 people packed Gillette Stadium over Memorial Day weekend in both 2008 and 2009 to see the culmination of the collegiate lacrosse seasons. The weekends were a huge success; great games, gorgeous weather, excited crowds.
The only thing missing from the NCAA Final Four’s New England debut? The presence of any local teams that could have enjoyed a true home-field advantage. Sure, Syracuse’s throng of Orange-clad fanatics made the five-hour trip east, but it still wasn’t the same as having a real home team that New Englanders could root for.
The upper echelon of collegiate lacrosse has long held a monopoly over the tournament, and that was as evident as ever when the Final Four was at Foxboro. Three schools – Virginia, Syracuse and Duke – were in both Final Fours. Even the Division 2 game pitted the same two clubs – C.W. Post and LeMoyne – and SUNY Cortland was a repeat participant in the Division 3 title game.
Truthfully, New England teams have barely caught a whiff of the NCAA tournament in recent years. Since UMass advanced to the national championship game in 2006, only three Division 1 teams from New England have even earned a spot in the postseason, and none made it out of the first round. In 2010, as in 2008, no area schools made it to the Big Dance.
Of course, Tufts University shined brightest among New England squads in 2010, earning its first NCAA Division 3 championship. It could only have been sweeter if the Jumbos had been able to hoist the hardware near their Medford campus.
The NCAA championships return to Gillette in 2012, and they are a very real target for local schools hoping to take the next step toward the game’s highest levels. The question is whether any area schools are real contenders to do what Tufts did this year, breaking the stranglehold that a privileged few had on the finals to make a title run of their own.
Overall depth is what separates the Virginias and Syracuses from the rest of the pack, according to John Jiloty, editor-in-chief of Inside Lacrosse. Once in a while, an unseeded team like Delaware in 2007 or even Notre Dame from this past May, gets on a roll at just the right time.
“You get a hot goalie and good defense, and you get some breaks, you can make a run,” said Jack Piatelli, a commentator for New England lacrosse broadcasts on Comcast.
With that in mind, let’s look deep into the crystal ball to see which New England teams have a shot at competing on the Foxboro turf in 2012.
UMass: Granted, it’s unlikely they’ll field a team anytime soon that approached the 2006 squad, which featured Tewaaraton finalist Sean Morris and played Virginia on Memorial Day. But UMass has made five tournament appearances since the turn of the century, so they’re probably the best bet to get in, which is the biggest step.
“I think they’re heading in the right direction,” Jiloty said.
A big reason for that is UMass’ freshman attack Will Manny, who finished second in IL’s national freshman rankings this spring and won the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year. Three of the Minutemen’s top five scorers were either freshmen or sophomores – meaning they will be upper-class leaders come 2012 -- including sophomore midfielder Anthony Biscardi, a second-team CAA selection. And while sophomore goalie Tim McCormack struggled at times in his first year as the starter, Piatelli thinks the future is bright for him.
“It’s tough to replace a Doc Schneider, any time the expectations are so high,” he said. “But I think now he’s got some time under his belt. He’s an athletic kid, sees the ball, and he’s just going to build more confidence.”
Harvard: At 6-6, the Crimson likely didn’t have the season they had hoped for in 2010, after going 8-5 the previous spring. But coach John Tillman had Harvard on the right track, after four straight losing seasons. Now with Tillman at Maryland, new coach Chris Wojcik will look to keep the train moving. Can the Crimson break through to reach the level of Cornell and Princeton?
If its 2009 recruiting class lives up to its billing, it just may. This past year’s freshman class was ranked third in the nation by Inside Lacrosse, including a slew of midfielders – Alex White, Jack Doyle, Peter Schwartz – who could emerge in the next few years.
The Ivy could be as strong as ever; according to Jiloty, even Penn – last in the league this year – has one of the top recruiting classes in the country. But the Crimson should be in the thick of it, thanks largely to their departed coach.
“Tillman was doing a good job, getting the kids to believe, not only that they can play at this level, but that they can win,” Piatelli said.
Bryant: The Bulldogs were never going to be a pushover, even in their first few years of Division 1 competition, after they won the Northeast-10 and made the NCAA tournament in their final year of Division 2 play in 2008. However, after a 10-5 debut season in Division 1 in 2009, Bryant improved to 12-5 this spring, including wins over Yale and Army, and one-goal losses to North Carolina and Stony Brook, both seeded teams in the tournament. It’s a testament to the job that coach Mike Pressler is doing down in Smithfield, R.I., during his first four years.
“To recruit kids when you’re not postseason eligible is not easy,” Jiloty said. “They have everything now. That’s going to push them even farther.”
With the formation of the Northeast Conference next spring, the Bulldogs would have a chance to grab the league’s automatic bid in 2012, and with the Bulldogs beating all four future NEC teams that they played this year, Bryant will be one of the favorites.
Middlebury/Tufts: If no Division 1 teams navigate the gauntlet that is the first two rounds of the tournament, the next best bet for a Memorial Day weekend game in Foxboro would be the pair of New England powerhouses from Division 3. Tufts usurped the Panthers this year during its run to the title, and while much of the core talent from this year’s team, including NESCAC Player of the Year D.J. Hessler, will have graduated by the 2012 season, the Jumbos will still have their top goal-scorer Sean Kirwan and goalie Steve Foglietta on the roster. And Middlebury hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 1998, so having the Panthers at least in the dance seems almost a sure thing. Whether they can give New England fans a local rooting interest come Memorial Day in 2012, however, is not so certain; that’s why they play the games.
