Semifinals: Michigan whips CU-Boulder, advance to finals

The Michigan men's lacrosse team continued their winning ways on Friday night in Denver. But before the lax team even suited up, drama filled the stadium. Michigan perched in a viewing gallery to watch the tail-end of #3 BYU vs. #2 Chapman semifinal game-- which turned out to be a thriller.

With a wide open lane to the net, the leagues best long-stick midfielder Britton Cone decided against a game winning attempt in regulation, and tried to settle the ball by throwing to an open teammate. Unfortunately for BYU, the pass bounced out of the reach of the attackman and trickled past the sideline. That was the last time they saw the ball on their offensive side. Within a few minutes of overtime, the stingy BYU defense stripped the ball from a Chapman attackman near the end-line. Then came any athletes worst nightmare. The BYU d-pole desperately tried to heave the ball downfield. The pass was intercepted by #3 on Chapman who was all alone on the goal crease. After two fakes and a solid finish, that was it. Michigan players walked down to their lockeroom. They knew well what the outcome of that game meant: rematch. All they had to do was take out the #5 Buffs first.

Michigan answered the call and went up on the Buffs early, leading by a score of 6-3 at the end of the first quarter. Riley Kearns was a hero again, especially after singlehandedly dismantling the CU defense with some creative play behind the net. Junior Midfielder, Jordan Kirshner (Ann Arbor Huron, woot woot) also got into the act, scoring an important last-minute goal that extended Michigan's halftime lead to 8-4. In the second-half, the bottom really fell out for the Colorado Buffalos. Not even their fans could bring them back from the sizable lead that Michigan produced in the 3rd quarter. Luckily, Dennis Kearns was in the attendence. The former P.I. made sure the unruly Boulder banterers knew their place. Nice work, D.

Final score: UM 17, CU-Boulder 7
Boxscore and flowtos

FINALS: #3 Chapman University
Saturday, May 16th. 7PM

Rounds 1 and 2: Central and BYU

The University of Michigan Lacrosse team made a statement this weekend. In front of a sold-out crowd at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse the Wolverines made sure opponents knew who was #1. With back to back games against lowly Central Michigan and #4 ranked Brigham Young, the team remained unflappable and confident in their pursuit of perfection.

The first game featured an array of UM scorers who peppered outmatched Central Michigan goaltenders. To their credit, the CMU program is showing signs of improvement. The Chippewa's have fielded a large group of players and have a solid attackman #00, who showed swagger despite his teams unfortunate choice of grey poupon-colored headgear. Apparently, this rivalry still needs time to ferment the anger and animosity amonst the two competitive squads.

Here is the first of two highlight reels from Sick Lax:
University of Michigan Men's Lacrosse vs. Central Michigan University from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.

The second game of the weekend deserves more words than the latter mentioned game: Michigan vs. BYU. Rivalry? I guess you could say so. The bad blood dates back to before I picked up a lacrosse stick (yeah, I'm from Michigan if you hadn't guessed). In fact, from 06'-07' Michigan lacrosse was 0-3 vs. the cougars. Fortunately, due to dedication in the weight-room and to intense conditioning, this trend has been reversed. And with Saturday nights solid victory over arch-rival BYU, the trend should surely continue.

Andrew Fowler had another excellent performance, often fending off pesky BYU attackmen and clearing the ball very effectively. Between the pipes he stood large against some of the nations most skilled offensive players. Those players for BYU were overshadowed by the dominant showing of Michigan's top-to-bottom barrage of attackmen. Fueled by Zorovich's timely lefty rips from the island and Yealy's sneaky inside play, the Wolverines continued to show why they are so hard to stop.

The Michigan Daily once again recognized UofM lacrosse efforts in Monday's paper. Here is the article: "Wolverines all business in rivalry game"

In addition, the guys at Sick Lax made this for your viewing pleasure:
University of Michigan vs BYU Men's Lacrosse- 3/28/09 from Wes McGowan on Vimeo.