>The college season is winding down which means that the national championships are up for grabs. The Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division 1 semi final and championship & Division 2 championship will be televised on Fox College Sports Atlantic this year. The D1 semis will be aired on Friday, May 15 at 6 pm & 9 pm (Iowa time). The championship will be aired live on Saturday, May 16 with the D2 game at 5 pm and the D1 game at 8 pm (Iowa time). Mediacom will feature the games on channel 172 in the Des Moines area.

Division 1 bracket
Round One: #1 Michigan defeated #16 Texas; #9 Sonoma State defeated #8 Lindenwood; #5 Colorado defeated #12 California Santa Barbara; #Minn-Duluth defeated #13 Boston College; #3 Chapman defeated #14 Colorado State; #6 Simon Fraser defeated #11 Virginia Tech; #10 Florida State defeated #7 Cal Poly; #2 BYU defeated #15 Oregon
Round Two: Michigan defeated Sonoma State; Colorado defeated Minn-Duluth; Chapman defeated Simon Fraser; BYU defeated FSU

Final Four Preview

6 pm: The #2 seed BYU (18-3) takes on the #3 seed Chapman (15-2). Each team previously lost to Michigan this season by scores of 14-11 and 13-10, respectively. BYU also lost to Colorado (10-8) and Simon Fraser (17-14); Chapman beat SF twice this season including a 15-14 win last night. In this tight match up, I’d have to say that the advantage goes to BYU. To start the season, they defeated Air Force (NCAA D1) 7-6 and lost a relatively close game to Denver (NCAA D1) 18-11. In this semifinal, the Cougars will beat the Panthers by two goals.
9 pm: Still undefeated reigning champions and #1 overall Michigan takes on a 15-6 Colorado sleeper team. With a score differential of 284-100 in 18 games, Michigan’s offense should utterly destroy Colorado. In their March 14 meeting, the maize and blue won by a huge margin (13-4). There is no reason to think that tomorrow night will be any different, especially when you compare Michigan’s 8 goal win over Minn-Duluth (18-10) vs Colorado’s three goal squeaker last night (13-10). In order to have a shot, Colorado needs to shut down Trevor Yealy and Peter Vasher. Good luck with that! Wolverines over Buffaloes by five plus.

Division 2 Bracket
Round One: #9 Western Oregon defeated #8 Southwestern; #5 Northern Colorado defeated #12 Stonehill; #6 Emory defeated #11 Cal State Fullerton; #7 Westminster defeated #10 Missouri State
Round Two: #1 Dayton defeated Western Oregon; #2 St Thomas defeated Westminster; #3 Davenport defeated Emory; #4 St Johns defeated Northern Colorado

The Importance of the MCLA

For those of you that don’t know, all of the Iowa colleges with lacrosse teams are members of the MCLA. This includes Iowa, ISU, Dordt, Palmer Chiropractic, Cornell College, and Northwestern College (they did not field a team in 2009). Many other regional schools field teams in the MCLA including three members of the Missouri Valley Conference*, most of the Big 10** and all of the Big 12 Conference.

The MCLA is the largest lacrosse league in the world with over 200 teams in 10 conferences which are further divided into 2 divisions. Most former high school players play MCLA lacrosse in college, especially players from nontraditional areas.

*MVC Schools with MCLA lacrosse: Creighton, Illinois State, Missouri State
*MVC Schools without MCLA lacrosse: Drake, UNI, Bradley, Evansville, Indiana State, Southern Illinois, Wichita State
**Big 10 Schools without MCLA lacrosse: Penn State (NCAA), Ohio State (NCAA), Wisconsin (GLLL), Northwestern (GLLL)