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.
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.