Here’s a look at some takeaways from week 10 of the college lacrosse season.
Byrne Shines Bright
The goalie play at Army West Point this season has not been what many fans have come to expect from Joe Alberici’s program. AJ Barretto, Wyatt Schupler and then to Knox Dent all making their names known during their time as the starter at West Point. It was a seamless transition through all three of those goalies and the tradition of great goalie play at West Point goes further back than those three for certain.
Matt Chess looked really good in two starts in 2023 but through the first six games of 2024 his production wasn’t as great, making 69 saves with a 47.3% save percentage. Ahead of the North Carolina game, the Black Knights made a change in cage with sophomore Sean Byrne taking over as the starter. Through three games as a starter he has made 44 saves with a 56% save percentage.
Byrne’s best game of the season came at one of the most important times as he stood tall for 19 stops (70%) versus arch rival Navy. Facing 46 shots and 27 on cage, Bryne started and finished hot. His best quarter was the scoreless third where he made nine saves versus a Navy offense that was seemingly firing at will with 14 shots taken that frame.
Duke Still Owns Virginia
Duke topped Virginia 18-12 on Sunday afternoon. Duke pulled out to a 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked behind. A 4-0 run to start the fourth quarter helped the Blue Devils pull away after Virginia has cut it to three and helped seal the deal.
It was the Brennan O’Neill and Josh Zawada show in Durham on Sunday as the Cavaliers’ defense had no answer for the Duke attack duo. O’Neill tallied five points off four goals and one assist while Zawada netted five goals and dished out one assist for six points. The combined nine goals from the pair came on just 15 shots, giving the two a combined 60% shooting percentage on the day.
Duke defenseman Kenny Brower held Virginia’s Connor Shellenberger to one goal on six shots and three assists. Freshman goalie Patrick Jameison continued his strong play with a 13-save day.
The win for Duke marked the program’s 19th consecutive regular season win over Virginia. Duke is 24-2 versus the Cavaliers since 2005. The last regular season win for Virginia over the Blue Devils came on April 17, 2004. That’s exactly 20 years ago in three days.
Malone Shines on Senior Day
Penn State earned a 14-8 win over Michigan on Saturday in Happy Valley. The win can on senior day and was a much needed breathe of fresh air for the Nittany Lions who had dropped each of the previous two contests with losses to Maryland and Johns Hopkins.
In the win, freshman Kyle Lehman re-entered the starting lineup and tallied four points off three goals and an assist. At the end of the first frame with two Lehman scores already it looked like the freshman could be the story of the game. But then awoke graduate student TJ Malone. The attackman caught fire late in the second frame and would not cool off until the 14-8 victory had been sealed.
Malone ended the day with five goals and two assists for seven points to lead the Nittany Lions’ offense. He took 11 total shots and put seven of them on cage.
Patriot League is Chaos
The Patriot League always presents some madness but this year the entire league seems to just be pure chaos.
By nature of Army’s win over Navy, Lehigh’s win over Colgate, Lafayette’s defeat of Boston U., and Loyola’s win over Holy Cross, the league now has a six-way tie at the top of the standings. Army, Boston U., Colgate, Lehigh, Loyola, and Navy are all part of that tie with each of those teams having a 4-2 record.
The six-way tie was created in part due to a pair of Saturday upsets as Lafayette beat Boston U. 11-10 while Lehigh bested Colgate 9-7. Both games saw unranked teams take down ranked team. For Lafayette, it was the program’s first ever win over the Terriers and was completed via a buzzer-beater from Peter Lehman. For Lehigh, Sean Dow’s 78% day at the faceoff dot helped put the Mountain Hawks over the edge.
Other Weekend. Notes
– Denver bested Georgetown 10-8 to snap a five-game losing streak to the Hoyas.
– Notre Dame edged Cornell 18-17 in a Sunday afternoon battle on Long Island where the offenses were flying high.
– Cam Rubin went off for eight points (6G/2A) in a 15-12 victory for Penn over Harvard.
– Brown pulled off the upset of Princeton, taking down the Tigers by a score of 13-12. Spencer Hughes led Brown five points (4G/1A) while Connor Theriault made 14 saves.
Lacrosse Bucket 