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

UM live coverage tonight

Semifinal MCLA lacrosse contest between the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Michigan live on FOX College Sports channel 617 on direct tv at 8PM MT.

Article: FCS Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Championships

WATCH IT HERE

Get em' Blue!!!

Quarterfinals: Celebratin' like White Shoes Johnson

The Sonoma State Seawolves ran into a buzz-saw Wednesday in Denver. From the start, UM was firing on all cylinders. The score ballooned to 17-4 by HALFTIME! The offensive explosion was ignited by Senior Attackmen, Riley Kearns (Birmingham Brother Rice) who scored a hat trick before Michigan got done breaking in their new Adidas cleats.

Props to Adidas for supplying the new shoe. It was like watching Billy Johnson score a TD for the first time. Except for these athletes actually celebrate with their teammates. Sorry, Billy.

Final score: UM 22, Sonoma State 6
Boxscore and flowtos
Ann Arbor News: UM routs Sonoma State, advances to semifinal

Next game: #5 ranked University of Colorado Buffaloes
Friday, May 15th. 8pm in Dick's Sporting Goods Park

Michigan vs. Colorado 3/14/09

After viewing these highlights, you might say that they appear very one-sided. This would be the case, but from the first minute, this game was handily controlled by Michigan. Dave Reinhard dominated at "X" all day. Colorado's response: put two long poles on the wings and have them line up as far on their defensive side as possible. This strategy worked the first play of the game, but fluttered after that. Rhino's flawless execution of his repetoire of moves was like watching a fogo clinic. Backwards, forwards, sideways; it didn't matter.

The one bright-spot that shone for Colorado was its goalie play. However, lizard-like style, sweatpants, and long sleeves could not protect Kevin Moriarty from the onslaught that he was about to receive. I mean, common, long-sleeves in Oosterbaan? The weather isn't exactly inclement!

The final score was posted at 13-4.