Written by Corey McLaughlin at LaxMagazine.com
In chronological order. All times Eastern:
1. No. 15 North Carolina (5-4) at No. 7 Duke (7-4), 6 p.m. Friday
Through nine non-conference games to start the season, North Carolina is just above .500. This is the Tar Heels’ ACC opener, and some self-inflicted wounds have held them back at times, including last week against former ACC foe Maryland.
Meanwhile, Duke has been up and down, like a lot of other teams this season. What’s the deal with the Blue Devils?
Last Saturday’s comeback overtime win against Syracuse may have set the Blue Devils on the right path for the last month of the regular season. But how they hold up against their Tobacco Road rival should tell us a bit more.
Duke’s defense is average nationally (32nd), allowing almost 10 goals a game. Their offense, and ground ball play and scoring in a variety of ways in transition and unsettled situations — hallmarks of John Danowski-coached Duke teams — might have to get them in the postseason and beyond. Duke’s Kyle Rowe is a top-5 faceoff guy this season (69.60) and teams would kill for the Blue Devils’ one-two-three punch of midfielders Myles Jones (28 points) and Deemer Class (30), and super sophomore attackman Justin Guterding (33). In fact, Duke has five players with 28 or more points. Its starting offensive six are great, but more depth is needed. Those three, plus Jack Bruckner, Case Matheis and Chad Cohan account for 86.5 percent of the Blue Devils’ points.
2. Penn (5-3) at No. 2 Yale (7-0), Noon Saturday
Yale, ranked No. 2 in the Nike/Lacrosse Magazine Top 20 and first by the coaches and media voters, starts a stretch of three games in seven days with a home game at Reese Stadium against Penn. The next two games are against Sacred Heart and Dartmouth before a matchup with Brown on April 16 that the lacrosse nation is already looking forward to.
Yale would be wise not to overlook Ivy League foe Penn, which is improved from 2015 and will be hungry for a win after losing 13-8 at home to Maryland on Tuesday. A big matchup will be Yale defenseman Michael Quinn against Penn attackman Nick Doktor. The senior is a feeding machine. He’s averaging three assists per game (a smidge behind Division I leader Shack Stanwick with 3.25), and gets the ball to a variety of finishers. Kevin McGeary, Simon Mathias, U.S. U19 member Alex Roesner and Reilly Hupfeldt have between 16 and 18 points each.
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