HERE COMES LACROSSE!!

by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog

I recently had the chance to attend the 2008 NCAA Lacrosse Championships which were held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro Massachusetts which serves as the regular season home of the New England Patriots and Revolution. This was my third final four I have attended as I went down to Baltimore to see the 2003 and 2004 championships.

The weekend started off on Saturday with a classic matchup between two traditional powers in Syracuse and Virginia. The Cavaliers jumped out to a big lead but decided to stall the game instead of not attacking giving the Orange a chance to make a comeback which they completed with a goal in the second overtime. The second game on the afternoon pitted the Duke Blue Devils against Johns Hopkins. The Dukies were expected to roll easily over the Blue Jays but never found a rhythm as they were upset by Johns Hopkins to set up a Syracuse-Hopkins final on Monday. The attendance for the Division 1 semifinals was 48,224 people.

The Division 1 schools took Sunday off as the D-3 and D-2 games took center stage. The Division 3 games are usually the most entertaining as both teams usually go all out for all 60 minutes with a ton of hitting and errors in play which leads to a ton of ground balls. The Salisbury-Cortland State showdown did not disappoint my assertion as the Sea Gulls ran away with a 19-13 victory. The game was followed by the D-2 final with Lemoyne taking on New York Tech which was won by NY Tech 16-11. The crowds for the day were tremendous with 24,317 people taking in the great doubleheader.

The final game of the weekend took place on Monday with the Hopkins-Syracuse game taking the stage. Hopkins jumped out to an early lead by the Orange made a great comeback to win their 10th national championship by a score of 13-10 in front of 48,970 people.

The biggest thing to look at from the weekend is the fact that the championships outdrew the 2008 NCAA Final Four on Saturday and Monday. I bet a ton of people around the country do not recognize that the sport of lacrosse has become a major player in the northeast for the sport of baseball. Kids are drawn to lacrosse because it is a high scoring game where everyone can play it and is making a smooth transition from being a prep school sport to becoming a major player in public schools. I know that if I was growing up right now that I would be playing lacrosse any day over playing baseball as I would be much more interested in the sport because of the brutal nature.

What do you think about the sport of lacrosse?