The Great Lakes Classic

The highly awaited inter-state contest between The University of Michigan and Michigan State University turned out to be quite a disappointment. The game was delayed for over an hour after thunderstorms hit the entire southern half of Michigan. When the game began, Michigan picked up where the weather left off. The Wolverines soaked MSU in goals and led 6-1 before the weather reared its ugly face yet again.

Play picked back up around 10:00pm.

Final Score: UM 21, MSU 9.

Video from SickLax: (notice the lack of smoke-show)

Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Michigan State from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

U Laxin'

If you missed it Sunday, it can be summed up quickly here: Michigan won in front of almost 3,000 Chapman supporters (and a handful of UofM parents) on National television. The the color-commentary was from Kyle Harrison.

Battle of the Uni's
By request of Chapman head coach Mike Wood, Michigan donned it's brand-new maize Adidas jersey's. As always, the bold Michigan helmets looked great in the California night (see Michigan rose bowl games if you need convincing). Likewise, Chapman also showcased their new threads. Overall, the black and grey strips were met with mixed opinions, but I have to say they looked pretty neat.

Kudos to ESPN for covering these two elite MCLA teams! This game is definitely a proud moment for the league. People are beginning to understand what MCLA means for the sport of lacrosse. It is made up of teams who don't necessarily have lacrosse roots, but are working hard to develop players and support in undeveloped lacrosse areas. And as States like California, Texas, Florida and Michigan continue to grow their programs, it can only mean good things for the spread of the sport.

Inside Lacrosse highlights:

Bye-bye Blue Bullets

This is obviously cliché, but I'll say it anyways: it feels like yesterday when we were picking up the Tokyo Blue Bullets from the airport. Their arrival in America was quite a spectacle. This was evident as Midfielder Svet Tinchev laid on the horn in his 2000 blue Ford Explorer to excite the Japanese lacrosse players for their stay in America.

As if they needed to get excited...

Their time here in the United States was short but sweet for certain. The school newspaper, the Michigan Daily did a feature of their trip, which appeared in today's issue. Check it out: Michigan Daily- Ambassadors to the game

Quote of the article: It was all about experiencing the life of an Wolverine lacrosse player — the grueling practices, the long hair, the glamorous gear, the parties and the undefeated record."

A weekend in Chillinois

Michigan bolstered it's record with two more wins, which now makes them 13-0 on the year (33 wins in a row!)

Friday:
The Wolverines departed on a trip to Kalamazoo after an always delightful pregame meal at cottage inn. In front of ~30-40 cold fans at Vicksberg Stadium (apparently this is WMU's home field) the University of Michigan took on Western Michigan for CCLA supremacy. The feisty Bronco's netted the first goal of the game and forced Michigan to respond quickly. And as the sun went down, so did the Bronco's. Michigan easily won the game by a final score of 15-4.

Saturday:
Still full from the night before, the Wolverines sleepily walked down to breakfast at 9am. Besides getting two wins, the breakfast buffet was the best part of the trip. If you had an omelette, you know what i'm talking about. Dank.

The "Lax Fest" began with a colossal battle between New Trier High and the Lake Forest Scouts. Despite having notable alumni, Anthony Hrusovsky and Wes McGowan in attendance, the scouts couldn't capitalize on their late comeback. Hrusovsky's brother, Joey had 5 points and is a future Wolverine in 2010. Watch out, middies.

The second game of the "fest" featured the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan lacrosse squads. Desperation and grittiness were two words that came to mind after watching the Illini play. Their LSM #25 had a requisite amount of flow and was most of the reason why UM couldn't get much going offensively. Spectacular play by Kevin Zorovich and Trevor Yealy gave the wolverines a 5-2 advantage at halftime.

The second half featured more of the same: cold and more cold. When the reserves went in, the trainer had to check them for frost bite. In April! Hey, at least Illinois has to go through the same seasonal fluctuations we do! Brutal weather to say the least.

Bonus coverage: Local Lake Forest newspaper talks about Hrusovsky domination

Next: cheers to a weekend without games!

Colorado State Highlights

Check out the goal at 1:37. Probably the goal of the year!


Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Colorado State from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

Minnesota Duluth Highlights

Trevor Yealy nets U of M lacrosse record 11 goals in one game! Awesome flow to boot.


Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Minnesota-Duluth (April 3, 2009) from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

Former player one of "Students of the Year"

First of all, damn. Since I've known Abdul, I always knew he was destined for greatness. During trips with the team I would always try to muster up intellectual conversations with him and he would slowly and patiently explain to me the gravity of certain escalating world conflicts. I sat there and listened. It was like listening to an audiobook encyclopedia. You would have thought that he was a foreign policy wonk. He was. That just wasn't his main interest.

Abdul is currently in between years of medical school at Michigan, and Rhodes scholar honors at Oxford. Did I mention he was smart? He has already spent time in Peru through "Project Suyana" that helps to fight mortality in pregnancy-- and this was all after his career as a solid starting defensemen on the lacrosse team. Abdul was known for his physical presence as well as his intensity. You always knew when Abdul was coming on a slide (I'm lucky that I was never on the other end of them!)

So Congrats to "Pabst"- what a tremendous honor!

If you want to see Abdul, here is him giving the U of M commencement speech (note Bill Clinton's praise at the end):

If the dog ain't dead, keep kickin' it!

Whoa! What a weekend! With back to back games against elite MCLA teams, the University of Michigan Men's lacrosse team had all the answers for Minnesota Duluth and 4-time MCLA champ, CSU. Led again by scoring sensation, Trevor Yealy, the Wolverines continued their path to perfection.

On Friday night, University of Minnesota Duluth seemed ready to go. For stretching they lined up squarely at midfield, staring down the Wolverines as if to say, "we don't care who you are. We are dulax". But those thoughts of an upset vanished as quickly as the promise of spring in Ann Arbor. Snow fell today, and the Wolverines made it rain on Friday scoring 6 goals in the first frame. By the end of the night, the #1 team made sure that their lead was protected; the defense had been prone to let downs for most of the night. Luckily, Yealy provided his own bailout--putting in 11 in the night.

The following evening, the Wolverines matched up against longtime MCLA powerhouse, Colorado State. Although Yealy's help wasn't as warranted as the previous night, Michigan's futile efforts on the defensive side of the field were transformed into a denying, disciplined game. They sucked the life out of the CSU offense all night and were awarded with a 16-3 victory.

Congrats to the Seniors on the team, many of whom have spent hours upon hours in the weight room, conditioning, practicing and getting ready for that moment. It really was a beautiful sendoff!

Awards:
Player of the Weekend: Sophomore Attackmen, Trevor Yealy.
Why? Yealy netted a UM lacrosse game record 11 goals! I mean, common. How obvious can it get? 11. CSU coach Flip Naumberg commented in his infamous journal that Yealy was quite impressive as CSU watched the game from the sidelines. (Flip also linked the status of UM lacrosse to the fact that they have a dance team--admittedly, the players were impressed as well:


Defensive standouts: Michael Bartomioli
Talk about a difference maker! Bartomioli or "Barto" was everywhere on the field, including in the head of CSU fogo #33. There were numerous incidents that arose due to his intensity and physical play. Lesson learned: nobody messes with the Providence punisher.

Best play: Senior Attackmen, Riley Kearns - Bro Rice
Behind the back shot on the way back to "x".
Made ____ look foolish:
a.) Short stick d-mid
b.) Slide man
c.) goalie
d.) all of the above
Answer: d.) all of the above

Hopefully the guys at Sick lax will produce a video soon so that the world can witness Kearns' creative b-t-b. It should honestly be the companies' promotional video. It's that sick.

That's it from me, more to come soon.