Yesterday afternoon, girls’s lacrosse was performed in anger for the primary time within the common season. Fifty-six groups in Division I, II, and III took up sticks, and there will likely be a couple of hundred contests between now and Memorial Day Weekend to determine who the very best collegiate groups will likely be.
If there have been a few video games that caught my eye, it was these two. One featured a pair of Prime 20 groups and former NCAA champions, James Madison and North Carolina. UNC was a group which had seemingly been cursed due to an avalanche of accidents beginning in 2023 fall-ball. However a group which has gotten again its gamers from the harm checklist, in addition to reuniting the Humphrey sisters — Chloe, Ashley, and Nicole — and a passel of high recruits, confirmed out yesterday night in a 14-2 win which must be a large sign that the Heels are again.
Ashley and Chloe Humphrey led the assault with three objectives every, however the factor about this assault is that the primary six objectives scored yesterday have been by completely different individuals. You’ve seen balanced and gifted assaults like that earlier than; the primary few years of the Northwestern girls’s dynasty of the mid-2000s had balanced scoring — you could possibly maybe attempt to shut off future Corridor-of-Famer Kristen Kjellman, however anybody else in that assault seven was trusted with the ball at any time.
The opposite sport rating that was of notice was Louisville, a group which received its first ACC Match sport final yr, beat a Denver facet which was solely two years faraway from a Ultimate 4 berth by a rating of 10-8. Like UNC, Louisville had a balanced assault in its win over the Pioneers. Lauren Figas had three objectives, whereas Rian Adkins and Negai Nakazawa had two every for the Cardinals.
Louisville, for me, has been a “group of the long run” for a while. Whereas the group discovered success within the 2010s, the group made a course change in 2017. It was then when head coach Kellie Younger was let go after eight gamers transferred throughout the offseason — this, in an period earlier than the switch portal.
Scott Teeter was introduced in to proper the ship, however the Playing cards haven’t accomplished a profitable season since he was introduced in; the one over-.500 document was the truncated 2020 COVID-19 season, which noticed Louisville end with a 5-4 document.
I get the sensation that Louisville will construct on the Denver win and could possibly be a darkish horse within the highly effective ACC.
