April 18, 2008

MD1: No. 19 Denver at No. 15 Ohio State
Saturday, 11 a.m.
Hook: It really could not have worked out any better for the Buckeyes. With a record attendance expected at Ohio Stadium in conjunction with the spring football game, Ohio State gets to showcase men's lacrosse at its peak. Both teams are red hot and undefeated in GWLL play.

MD1: No. 7 Johns Hopkins at No. 10 Navy
Saturday, 12 p.m. (CBS College Sports)
Hook: One of two things could happen. Navy bounces back from its first loss in 11 years to Army by beating Hopkins for the first time in, um, 34 years. Or, the Blue Jays continue their improbable, if inevitable, march from 3-5 to a 10th national championship.

WD1: Colgate at American
Saturday, 12 p.m.
Hooks: No conference in Division I women's lacrosse is as uncertain as the Patriot League. The winner of this game clinches the PL regular season title and secures rights to host the conference tournament. Think upstart Navy wants to make the haul to upstate New York? Home-field advantage could factor mightily in which team represents this conference in an NCAA tournament play-in game come May.

WD1: No. 14 Yale at No. 18 Cornell
Saturday, 1 p.m.
Hook: With Penn securing the Ivy League title this week over at-large shoe-in Princeton, these next two Ivies are on the bubble. Each probably needs this win to get into the NCAA tournament, as the Bulldogs and Big Red vie for an at-large berth. It could come down to a head-to-head comparison.

MD1: No. 15 Loyola at Fairfield
Saturday, 1 p.m.
Hook: Trap game for the Greyhounds. Sure, they upset Georgetown to get into the driver's seat of the ECAC. But Fairfield is one of those dangerous teams. Of course, it's possible that Loyola could win this, capture the ECAC AQ and end up a middling seed in the NCAA tournament. Could the unlucky draw be Hopkins?

MD1: No. 3 Cornell at No. 17 Princeton
Saturday, 4 p.m.
Hook: Two of the three Ivy League unbeatens - Brown being the third - meet in an historically rich rivalry. Coaches had Princeton ahead of Cornell in preseason analysis, but the vaunted Tigers' defense and goalkeeping has yet to show well enough to support an often-anemic offense. The Big Red, meanwhile, has shuffled its personnel well to keep opponents off balance, and has won four in a row in the series.

MD1: No. 2 Duke vs. No. 8 Army (in Manhasset, N.Y.)
Saturday, 12 p.m. (ESPNU)
Hook: Great game at any rate, considering the programs and Army's time-stamping win over Navy last week. But it's also part of the "Lacrosse Day of Champions" meant to benefit the Lead the Way Fund (http://www.leadthewayfund.org/index.html), which was established in memory of former Duke player and Manhasset native Jimmy Regan, a U.S. Army Ranger killed in Iraq last year. Black Knights goalie Adam Fullerton has a 6.49 GAA, but Duke's offense is so powerful, it may just eclipse that in the first half.

MD1: No. 20 Hofstra at No. 13 North Carolina
Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Hook: Both teams will probably welcome the respite from the ardors of their respective conferences - perhaps more so for UNC (0-4 in ACC) than for Hofstra (4-1 in CAA). A bright spot in the Tar Heels' loss last week to Ohio State, faceoff specialist Shane Walterhoefer returned and did quite well (23-of-26). Both teams are strong up the middle.

WD1: No. 10 North Carolina at No. 1 Northwestern
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Hook: The last team to defeat Northwestern? You guessed it: North Carolina. It happened way back in the teams' 2007 season-opener. A lot has happened between then and now, and the Wildcats get this game in Evanston after a wake-up call (one-goal win) against Penn State and a primer (trap game?) tonight (8 p.m., CBS College Sports) against No. 17 Johns Hopkins.

WD1: No. 7 Duke at No. 13 Vanderbilt
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Hook: The Commodores have righted the ship, and may have secured their NCAA tournament spot with a win Wednesday over Notre Dame - lest the Blue Devils forget that among their five losses this year and part of a four-game skid were those same Irish the 'Dores defeated.