All Hail the Greyhounds!

The Eric Lusby show just finished up at the NCAA Div I Lacrosse Championship. Can you say ‘want-to?’ Eric Lusby tore up his knee against Cornell in 2010. Major reconstruction. Too much scar tissue that he had to tear loose to make it back for 2011. Loyola didn’t even make the top 25 in the pre-season rankings for 2012. But Eric Lusby had it all together again. The Loyola team was hungry, angry at being ignored, and laden with talent. Lusby was the last piece they needed. He had a great regular season. And when the tournament began, he burst into flames. The bigger the game, the bigger he played. In the quarter finals Loyal beat Denver 10-9. Lusby had 5. In the semi’s Loyola beat Notre Dame 7-5. Lusby had 5. In the championship game, Loyola beat Maryland 9-3. Lusby had 4. Lusby set a tournament record with 17 goals. Tough loss for Maryland, who were working on their own Dream Season. Fun to watch a kid from Seattle–Mercer Island actually–score 4 in their semi-final win over Duke. I played against Drew Snider’s dad back in the day.

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How Can He Do That?

Watched 2 of the 4 NCAA Men’s Quarterfinals yesterday, Maryland vs Hopkins and Loyola vs Denver. Lots of tremendous play from all 4 teams, but one moment stood out. Mark Matthews’ goal in the waning moments of Denver’s loss to Loyola (MD) is a thing of such beauty and body control it’s hard to know where to begin (about 1:08 of this clip). NCAA Highlights His team trailing, the chance to cut the deficit to one, but the pass is wide, the defenseman is right in Matthews’ face. To reach out across his body to the right with a one-handed stab, no more than 3″ of stick still in his grasp, and bring that pass in–like catching a brick in a teaspoon. To bring it in so smoothly, to get both hands on the stick, and then to turn full 180 and fire a left-handed laser is evidence of ballet-class body control. To do it while being physically assaulted by the defense, to put the ball in the upper corner with surgical precision and bring his team within 1, was a blazing portrait of focus. That his team lost adds poignancy to the moment, but nothing came smudge the beauty.

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