Hoyas Women's Lax wins first round NCAA game vs. JHU

[RusskyHoya]

A poster on LaxPower (jokingly) called it the biggest upset in the history of lacrosse. First NCAA tournament win for the ladies since 2006.

9-8 victory over the Blue Jays at UNC. Recap here.

Ricky is good for at least two of these "wait, what?!" wins per year. This one came at a pretty good time. The win at Duke was the other one this season.

[Nevada Hoya]

Congratulations on this win. It is amazing that this is the first NCAA win for the women since 2006; it seemed as if they were always contesting for the NCAA champs until then.

[RusskyHoya]

Hoyas drop a close one to UNC, 10-8. Held a 7-6 lead in the 2nd half but couldn't hang on against a much more highly regarded opponent playing on their home field.

May 10, 2014 12:29:54 GMT -5 Nevada Hoya said:

Congratulations on this win. It is amazing that this is the first NCAA win for the women since 2006; it seemed as if they were always contesting for the NCAA champs until then.

To be fair, they have gotten some byes into the 2nd round in that time. But the decline you've identified has two main causes, I think:

1. The number of D-I women's lacrosse teams has greatly increased, including teams fielded by deep-pocketed athletic programs like Florida. Title IX considerations are a driving force behind this expansion.

2. The facilities gap continues to grow and is taking its toll on recruiting. The MSF isn't as embarrassing from a women's lacrosse point of view as it is with football, but it's still pretty shabby. And, of course, the McDonough/Yates combination is quite subpar. The hope is that the IAC will provide a major boost to the lacrosse programs.

The women's program is in much better shape than the men's, in any case

[reformation]

I was glad to see the women win a game in the NCAA and contend against one of the favorites on their home field. The increased competition is certainly a factor in the performance decline since the early-mid 200's but its hard to attribute it to poor recruiting due to lack of facilities. The women get top 5 -10 recruiting classes consistently and I think that the current senior class was probably ranked #1. I think at least one of their other classes still playing was top 5.

[RusskyHoya]

May 11, 2014 16:54:01 GMT -5 reformation said:

I was glad to see the women win a game in the NCAA and contend against one of the favorites on their home field. The increased competition is certainly a factor in the performance decline since the early-mid 200's but its hard to attribute it to poor recruiting due to lack of facilities. The women get top 5 -10 recruiting classes consistently and I think that the current senior class was probably ranked #1. I think at least one of their other classes still playing was top 5.

Inside Lacrosse was nice enough to compile all of their recruiting class rankings in one place. The verdict:

2013 - Not in Top 10
2012 - #6
2011 - #5
2010 - #1

2009 - #6
2008 - #5
2007 - #1
2006 - #4
2005 - #9

The trend over the past four years in particular is a bit concerning. Moreover, the top recruit in the country for the current senior class was Kelyn Freedman, who had 0 goals and 0 assists on 2 shots today. So clearly there's an issue of talent not fully living up to expectations in addition to a decline in overall assessment (at least over the past 4 years).

Note also that inferior facilities generally also mean that you get less out of the talent you have, due to deficiencies in athletic training, sports medicine, and other resources. They don't develop and progress as much as they would elsewhere. Some (a lot) of that is on the coaches, of course, but facilities do play a role as well.

[DFW HOYA]

May 11, 2014 18:27:22 GMT -5 RusskyHoya said:

Note also that inferior facilities generally also mean that you get less out of the talent you have, due to deficiencies in athletic training, sports medicine, and other resources. They don't develop and progress as much as they would elsewhere. Some (a lot) of that is on the coaches, of course, but facilities do play a role as well.

Well said. The decline of lacrosse at Georgetown has been significantly underreported in the campus and local media, and facilities are a contributing factor. For many years, alumni figured that as long as Urick and Fried was there, the recruits would dutifully follow. Other schools are a little sharper in recruiting than that.

[reformation]

Looks like recruiting is pretty stable other than 2013--if the 2014 class is weak, i would begin to worry about recruiting, otherwise it still looks pretty good. I would guess the 2013 fall off has more to do with poor results and the rise of a few competitive programs than facilities(admittedly I know nothing about the actual team culture/rep among top recruits hs coaches). Its also possible I guess that the recruiting class ranking will rise/fall with the relative attractiveness of Gtwn generally which seems to be in a bit of a downtrend the last few years.

Anyone looking at this objectively/externally would have a lot of questions for the coaches. The team seems to lose a lot of close games, which would could be bad luck/coaching/team effort culture, a combo etc. . The top recruit from Freedman did not have a good day today obviously but was pretty essential to us getting to this point I think--its possible that UNC keyed on her to take her out of the game.