(Photo Courtesy of Army West Point Athletics)

Welcome to week 12 of the college lacrosse season, Y’all.

It’s rivalry week!

Midweek Recap

Georgetown defeated Loyola 14-7 to highlight Tuesday’s action. Binghamton also grabbed a win on Tuesday to clinch a spot in the America East Tournament.

On Wednesday, Holy Cross beat UMass Lowell 15-14 to earn their first victory of the season.

Thursday night will see Notre Dame and North Carolina go head to head in an ACC Thursday night matchup.

Army-Navy Returns to Michie Stadium

This weekend features multiple rivalry contest, but arguably the biggest will take place at noon on Saturday when the Army West Point Black Knights take the field at home against the Navy Midshipmen. It will be the first time since 2018 as the last two meetings (2019, 2021) were played in Annapolis.

Army comes into Saturday’s contest on a four-game winning streak and off their best performance of the season as they defeated Cornell 17-10 last week on the road. The Black Knights will be looking to avenge a 9-4 loss to the Midshipmen last season in which Brendan Nichtern was held without a single point, to just three shots, and three turnovers.

Boasting a top-10 scoring defense, the Black Knights have sen much greater depth of scoring in recent weeks with not only Nichtern, who leads the team with 72 points (30G/42A), but also Reese Burek, Paul Johnson, Jacob Morin, Bobby Abshire, Danny Kielbasa, among others, having multi-goal games over the past month or so. Additionally, freshman Will Coletti has found his form at the faceoff dot, going 135-for-235 (57%) this season. That includes a combined 69% mark over the last three games. Wyatt Schupler has continued to be the anchor of the Black Knights’ defense, making 151 saves with a 55% save percentage this season.

Navy comes into Saturday’s contest after a bounce-back, 9-5, win over Lafayette on Saturday that followed consecutive losses against Boston U. and Loyola the two weeks prior. That game saw Jackson Bonitz have his best performance (3GB/2CT) since entering back into the lineup after sitting out against Colgate in mid-March. Bonitz headlines a Navy defense that ranks 10th nationally, allowing 10.08 goals per game, but found themselves struggling against both Loyola and Boston U., falling 18-7 and 17-9 in those two contests.

Maryland-Hopkins Big Ten Rivalry Matchups

This weekend marks the final week of the regular season for the Big Ten, and that means the conference’s six teams will be facing their rivals.

Biggest among them is the Maryland Terrapins traveling to face the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in what will be a 6:00pm game under the lights at historic Homewood Field.

Maryland has been the clear-cut best team in college lacrosse this season, sporting an 11-0 record and appearing to have no holes anywhere on the field. The Terrapins are coming off a 19-12 win over Ohio State in which Logan Wisnauskas (5G/2A) led them in the contest where they pulled away after being all knotted, 7-7, at the half. Johns Hopkins is coming off a 13-10 win over Penn State in which Garrett Degnon (6G) and Connor DeSimone (6A) took over. It marked the Blue Jays’ second Big Ten win.

Last season, the two rivals met three times and Maryland won each meeting. That included a 14-13 win in the second regular season meeting and a 12-10 victory in the Big Ten title game.

Also in the Big Ten, Rutgers will travel to Penn State and on Saturday afternoon and Ohio State will welcome in Michigan to the Horseshoe for a Sunday Night Big Ten showdown.

Can Brown Keep Pushing Forward?

Mike Daly’s Brown Bears have been the darlings of the lacrosse world over the past few weeks. First, they took down Penn 12-10 in Philadelphia for their first Ivy League victory of the season. Then, a week later, they welcome in a red-hot Yale squad to Providence and hand them a 20-13 loss in a game where the Bears’ offense came to life like they never had before this season.

Brown now travels to Ithaca to face a No.8-ranked Cornell squad. The question remains, can Bruno knock off a top-10 team for the third consecutive week?

In last week’s game against Yale, Devon McLane (4G,2A) and Ryan Aughavin (4G,1A) took over on the offensive end and Matt Gunty went 15-for-33 (45%) at the dot, but the Bears went 10-for-17 in the second half alone.

Cornell will be looking to get back on track. CJ Kirst (37G/21A) has been the leader of this squad on the offensive end all season. He had a hat trick and dished out an assist as the most productive offensive weapon last week.

Elsewhere in the Ivy League, Harvard will host Princeton in a top-20 matchup that is likely much more important for the Crimson with them currently sitting at No. 16 in the RPI as one of only two Ivies not in the RPI top 10. Dartmouth will host Penn as the Big Green are looking for their first conference win. The Quakers will be looking to get their second consecutive Ivy win after beating Harvard a week ago. Yale host UAlbany in a non-conference battle.

Other Games to Watch

Vermont vs Binghamton: The two two top teams in the America East go head to head in Burlingtom on Saturday afternoon. The Catamounts are 4-0 in league play while Binghamton is 3-1 against conference opponents. Last season, Binghamton was one of just two America East teams to defeat Vermont last season. This game should be a good goalie battle with Vermont’s Ryan Cornell and Binghamton’s Teddy Dolan.

High Point vs Richmond: Who gets the No. 2 seed in the SoCon Tournament? This contest will settle that as the Panthers and Spiders both just have won conference loss after falling to Jacksonville. The Panthers are headlined by fifth-year Asher Nolting (28G/47A), who keeps climbing up the NCAA record books each week. Richmond has seen the duo of Ryan Lanchbury (28G/30A) and Dalton Young (26G/17A0) lead the way for a top-10 scoring offense.

Lehigh vs Boston U.: The Boston U. Terriers took down the Loyola Greyhounds last week in a game that saw the Terriers showcase their depth with midfielder Jake Cates now out for the remainder of the season. This week they have another big test to get through if they want to remain the sole unbeaten team in the Patriot League. The battle at the faceoff dot between BU’s Connor Calderone and Lehigh’s Mike Sisselberger will be one of the main talking points heading into this game.

Syracuse vs Virginia: For the second time this season, the Syracuse Orange and Virginia Cavaliers will meet. This time the battle will go down in upstate New York at the Dome. Virginia hits the road looking to get back in the win column after losing to Duke in an upset where Connor Shellenberger was held to just two assists. Syracuse is on a four-game losing streak dating back to late-March. Last time out, they fell to North Carolina 14-13 despite a strong late-game effort. Virginia won the first meeting between these two 20-11.