VT Men's Lacrosse Club #1 National Ranking
VT Men's lacrosse club is ranked #1 in the nation for the first time after taking down both the former #1 and the #4 in the same week . Poll here.
Also read the story here.
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Our men's club team has been really good, they won the SELC championship when I was still in school IIRC. Really hoping the increases in donations spurs the athletic department to add men's lacrosse as an NCAA sport in the near future. Could add women's field hockey to stay Title IX compliant and wouldn't need any new facilities.
I totally get where this is coming from, but I always hesitate on adding more sports. I know Maryland and other schools have had to cut programs in the past because they were losing too much money.
Obviously Babcock knows what he's doing, but we don't want to just add programs and stretch funding too far.
Way back when I was in skewl '03-07, for a journalism class I interviewed a higher up in the athletic department (forget his name) about adding men's lax as an NCAA sport. Title IX was a big hurdle as he said they didn't think they had room financially to add two sports, one men's and one women's. He did say he hoped it would happen in the future, but here we are 15 years later... Not sure if the same applies today but we could probably be pretty good with recruiting northern VA.
I mean, if your gonna add lacrosse as a sport then the ACC is a great conference for that. Duke, UNC, and UVA are short drives. ND and Cuse are longer travel, but no Miami or FSU trips.
Lots of outstanding OOC schools in MD and PA. Navy, John's Hopkins, Penn St., etc. Travel would mostly be short.
Someone once stated on Tech Talk Live that adding women's golf opened the door for another men's program. Might have been Babcock or Ballein.
Either way, I know of one alum who wants to add men's and women's ice hockey in the next decade. And another trying to get men's lacrosse right now. Adding the additional women's team takes away Title IX issues.
Also, we would kick some fucking ass as a D1 lacrosse school in one of the top 2 lacrosse conferences in the country. We could easily be a contender within a couple of years.
As much as I love hockey and I've really gotten into college hockey the past few years (especially women's hockey), a VT varsity hockey program is not an ideal use of resources whereas a VT varsity men's lacrosse program has national power potential.
Isn't one of the rules for college hockey an on campus arena? Unless they fit Cassell to accommodate, nor sure where they'd stash a rink
We can convert the War Memorial
Blast FurnaceGym pool into a "rink", we just don't tell anyone that the ice never freezes. That'll work, right?Current resources yes, it's a no brainer to add men's lacrosse. I believe there's still a Title IX hurdle involved. Field hockey should fix that.
I agree with you regarding lacrosse being a natural fit for VT. Being close to the real competition is a primary factor.
I have no idea what the financials are on something like that.
As much as I would LOVE having varsity ice hockey, it's nothing more than a pipe dream unless A) we replace Cassell or B) a very wealthy donor is willing to drop $100 Million to build new facilities.
Both seem very unlikely at this point.
yep- thread on TSL about Penn State football recruiting. Well to give you an idea, they built a world class hockey-only arena a few years back with donor funding. Pipe dream for VT
(just to add) Donor funding being the Pegula family that owns the Buffalo Sabres and Bills.
We would kill it in varsity men's lacrosse. That's a sport we could definitely compete for national championships in. It would also make some money so it wouldn't be a 100% net loss.
I really don't think it will be that easy. These other premier D1 teams have been investing in lacrosse and recruiting country (and Canada) wide for decades.
This is not meant as a slight against the kids on the club team but if you expect them to be made a D1 team and compete, I think you're gonna be in for a rude awakening, I'm not an expert but I am a former NoVa Lax kid.
That being said. Go Hokies club lacrosse team!
VT could definitely play in that pool, if they chose to do so. It's a relatively small universe, and many of the top teams are local.
I could see it either way, as I don't want more distractions from the revenue sports of football and basketball.
I'm not saying we couldn't but it would take some time. Probably longer than some folks think.
A good example of that is Michigan following their move up to D1 from Club. They weren't expected to be dominant by this point, but people figured that they would be a lot more competitive by now.
Right, isn't the ACC the "sec" of lacrosse? Uva, cuse, duke all major teams
Seriously.
Also UNC.
We're in the middle of the hotbed.
If the money is there, anything is possible. Clemson added softball in 2020 (cut short b/c of covid). 2021 was their first full season and they reached the NCAA regionals and won the ACC regular season. I don't think VT has the money to make it possible, but the potential for quick success is there.
I'm not saying the club team would compete as a D1 team. But a VT D1 lacrosse program would be extremely competitive.
Nevermind! my bad
Conference tournament starts this weekend in Lynchburg. VT has first round bye. Bracket
Hopefully some Hokies turn out. Would be nice to see them advance.
Hokies play Pittsburgh on Saturday, April 30, at 5:30.
Fuck Pat Narduzzi
Tech won the first matchup this season 16-9.
I was a part of the team for a few years and this has brought me great joy. Hopefully they can do big things in the ALC and National tournaments. They have one hell of a resume from going out west and beating Arizona and Arizona State and beating BYU who was number 1.
As another former member of the team ('12-16), It is awesome to see the support around the team and the successs that they have had this season. The program was founded in 1948 and this is our first #1 ranking ever. It'll be exciting to see how far this team can go in the championship, as I beleive our highest finish ever is still the Final 4 acheived in 2015.
I was on the team many many years ago. Long before the conferences and national championship. It is great to see them doing well this year. They've been to the nationals several times before with one final four. I'm hoping for better results this time. Go Hokies!
This is awesome
Tech defeated Pitt 11-4 and will face off with Clemson tomorrow for the ALC conference championship
Just went final. VT 18, Clemson 11. VT heads to the national tournament as the ALC Conference Champions!
Let's Go!!
Another one!
I'm not sure D1 lacrosse would go super smoothly for us.
but if it did
can...can you imagine the salt that would cause up the road in Charlottesville
can you EVEN IMAGINE. all their salt about everything else combined wouldn't equal the sum
You don't think we'd be competitive when the top 20 currently includes Richmond, Jacksonville, BU, and a bunch of Ivy League teams? I think with the right investment we'd be monsters PLUS it would piss the crap out of the Hoos.
Oh with the right investment, absolutely.
I just imagine it would be kind of the equivalent of an expansion team at first.
We just recruit all the best players with NIL money - we can be the USC of Lax
I made a donation. Show out at Nationals boys!
I made a donation earlier today as well...
Championship game replay.
Oh, look, the National Championships are just up the street in Round Rock, TX. Might have to take an early lunch break on Monday.
VT beat Boise State 17-7. They face the winner of Georgia Tech v. Concordia-Irvine tomorrow at 3pm in the quarters finals.
Never watched a single minute of Lax before today, but it's actually quite entertaining.
(Good guys in white)
Thank you for watching. I'm sure they will appreciate the support.
Lacrosse is easily the best sport no one watches
GT up next. 3:00 Tuesday.
Tournament site
Unfortunately season is over
Bummer. Couldn't make it today, was really hoping they'd get to continue on.
I only got to watch them once, but it's obvious those dudes really leave it all on the field.
Hokies are ranked #1 (tied with GT) and the #1 seed in the national tournament this year. Hoping for a better result this time. They won't face GT again unless it is the final. Tournament site.
Here's the double OT gamewinner in the conference championship
They had to come from 3 down in the 4th and scored with less than a minute to tie it up.
Back in Round Rock, TX again, nice, I'll have to swing by for a few games. Anyone else gonna go?
Please bring lax to VT. ACC lax games are on point. Watched Duke vs ND and Duke vs UNC maybe in 2016 when my wife was down there doing her MBA. Shit was legit. Around that time Duke and ND were top 5.
All 5 ACC men's lacrosse teams are in the Top 25. Duke, Virginia and Notre Dame go 1,2,3. UNC at 14 and Syracuse at 21.
Heart attack central. I checked the bracket on the tournament site and it showed MSU 19, VT 3. I honestly couldn't believe it, so I checked the VT Lacrosse Tweeters and the tournament site got the scores reversed. Hokies advance to the 2nd round in convincing fashion over Sparty.
PS - The game was tied 3-3 at half before VT totally went HAM with 8 goals in the 3rd and 8 more in the 4th.
18 straight is impressive as hell. From the MCLA site:
No. 1 Virginia Tech (15-2) d. No. 16 Michigan State (6-6), 19-3
It was a bit of slow start to the game for the top-seeded Hokies as they trailed Michigan State, 2-0 after one quarter and then 3-1 early in the second quarter.
From that point on, it was all Virginia Tech. The Hokies scored the final 18 goals of the game over the last 40 minutes to cruise home for a 19-3 triumph.
Jared Cole led the way for Tech, scoring four goals while Aidan Smith had two goals and three assists. The Hokies goalies combined for 11 saves.
Mason Rezenka accounted for two of the Spartans three goals while Connor Hamilton had two assists. Kaelan Bonner made 17 saves for Michigan State while Matt Copple added two more.
So Sparty gave up 19 goals and their goalies also had 19 saves? 38 shots where the goalie was involved (so not including straight misses)? There's only one word for that........Bombardment!
The first half everyone on both sides looked tired and sluggish; an MSU dad said this was the warmest game they played all year.
During the halftime break, I could hear the Hokies in their huddle from 2 fields away, amping each other up. Very different team came out after that. Great leadership in the group. Couldn't make it back for tonights game, so hoping to see them Thursday for the quarters.
Next up is 8 seed Utah Valley this evening. Might be a close game. Their two losses were to GT and LU (by 1). Hopefully VT keeps up the scoring tempo.
Final. 17-6 good guys.
No. 1 Virginia Tech (16-2) d. No. 8 Utah Valley (16-3), 17-6
They may have got off to a slow start in the first round, but the Hokies were on their game from the jump against Utah Valley.
After a mildly competitive first quarter which saw Virginia Tech grab a 4-3 lead, the Hokies proceeded to outscore the Wolverines 13-3 for the remainder of the contest.
Aidan Smith had a hat trick along with an assist while Jake Bilbaum added a pair of goals.
Six different players scored for the Wolverines and Max Sturgill made 23 saves in the loss.
Hmmm, UTU gave up 17 goals and their goalie had 23 saves - 40 shots on goal. What's the word?
Man, I wish I could be in Texas this week. These games must be awesome to watch.
Would someone please make a 2023 thread because I am going to lock this one down.