Warriors eye finals
NCAA LACROSSE
For too long, the Merrimack men’s lacrosse team has been knocking on the door. Three straight trips to the Final Four but no championship game appearance.
Well, as Paul McCartney once sang, “Somebody is knocking at the door. Somebody is ringing the bell. Do me a favor and open the door and let ’em in.”
That’s the hope that Merrimack (14-3) holds when it travels to Garden City, N.Y., to take on Adelphi (15-3) today with a berth in next week’s NCAA Division 2 championship game at Gillette Stadium up for grabs. Last year’s finalist Limestone plays Tampa in the other semifinal.
“Definitely. It’s taken a couple of tries to get here. It’s what we’ve been working towards all year,” said Merrimack defender Tom McLaughlin. “We’re sick of getting this far. We all want to get to the national championship game.”
The Warriors fell to Adelphi, 12-9, back on April 1, but their hopes are pinned on a better result in the rematch.
“We know each other well. It certainly makes it easier in some respects, especially from a scouting perspective. We don’t have to go back and research seven games of film,” said Merrimack coach Mike Morgan, the program’s all-time winning coach at 128-36 in 10 seasons.
“The more you play in games like this, the more you know what to expect and how to prepare.”
Just last week, Merrimack ousted a team it had lost to earlier this season, defending national champion LeMoyne, in the NCAA quarterfinal by a 10-5 score.
Morgan said the Warriors have to “handle the environment” with the high stakes on an opponent’s home field.
Said McLaughlin, “We have a veteran team with a lot of guys who have played in big games before. We just need to play smart and play fast.” BC looks to soar
Another ticket to Gillette Stadium’s NCAA lacrosse championships will be awarded when the Boston College women’s team hosts Southern California today.
The prospect of moving just down the road for a national semifinal next week has BC sophomore sensation Samantha Apuzzo excited.
“Playing at Gillette would be incredible,” she said.
But first, the No. 14 Eagles must contend with the seventh-ranked visitors, some of whom will be familiar to the Eagles. USC coach Lindsey Munday is a former pupil of BC coach Acacia Walker, who was an assistant at Northwestern when Munday played there.
The teams met at BC two years ago, when BC emerged with a 16-12 victory. But Walker isn’t letting the home field advantage affect her preparation.
“They’re so good, so dangerous. They have a really good defense and they have lots of talent on offense,” Walker said of USC. “I don’t believe in the home field advantage because all the teams are good at this time of the year.”
‘We’re sick of getting this far. We all want to get to the national championship game.’ — TOM McLAUGHLIN of Merrimack, which lost in the NCAA semifinals each of the last two years