QuickStick MCLA Top 20 – March 12th

It was a wild week in MCLA lacrosse and although our Top 6 remains unchanged, there is an abundance of shuffling in this week’s poll.

This week in MCLA history will go down as the week when the west came to the east. Actually, more or less this has been the case for the majority of the season. It’s liberating seeing teams like Chapman, ASU, and Colorado traveling east to take on the top SELC teams as for years the SELC big guns were always forced to travel.

Biggest points to notice are the absence of MCLA powers Arizona State and Colorado State. MCLA Historians, is this the first time both of these teams have never been ranked??

1. Utah – The Utes dismantled a pretty talented Boise State squad 25-5… I hear they’re looking to scrimmage Denver next week 😉
2. Grand Canyon – The Lopes made a statement by thrashing Boston College 10-1. They followed up their impressive effort with a sluggish game against San Diego State, but in the end, a win’s a win.
3. Michigan State – Sparty continued their winning ways knocking off Sonoma State and Florida handily. This Friday’s matchup against Davenport is building up to be a thriller!
4. Chapman – The Panthers doubled up a talented VaTech squad 10-5 and followed it up with a thriller against Concordia-Irvine. Chapman got the W, but CUI made sure to announce they’re in DI for a reason.
5. Colorado – Buffs went on a business trip and well, they took care of business. The win at Liberty is impressive in a hostile environment (find me another MCLA team that spits fire when home goals are scored…). Equally as impressive was their ability to hit the road and take down GaTech. A game the Jackets would have loved to have won.
6. South Carolina – No games, no movement. Can’t penalize the ‘Cocks for crushing spring break. Cancun? PCB? South Beach? Who knows where they went. One thing’s for sure, we guarantee they crushed it.
7. Davenport – The Panthers defeated the Buffalo Bulls (not Bills) 20-12. As mentioned earlier, maybe the MCLA Game of the Week is looming against Michigan State.
8. BYU – The Cougs went down to Texas and slayed some young bloods. Marquee win of the trip was beating FSU by 3, but you can’t forget the 17-2 thrashing of Texas. BYU hosts Oregon in a big Top 15 matchup on St. Patty’s Day.
9. Concordia Irvine – Really impressed by the 1-goal loss to Chapman. As noted before, CUI is here to play. With all those recruits…
10. Virginia Tech – Hokies wound up dropping both games out west but came back home and took down Arizona State in a blizzard. Sun Devils we’re certainly not in Tempe anymore.
11. Boston College – Eagles are in the midst of nearly a month-long break. That time off will be nice after their busy OOC schedule, but is it too much time away from playing games?
12. Florida State – The Noles are tough to figure out. You can’t discredit them for a 3-goal loss to BYU, but the loss to Texas? Yup. Slow start hurts FSU and Texas ends up squeaking one out in OT. Noles drop one spot. Also, Reid Smith may be the best freshman in the MCLA.
13. Georgia Tech – The Yellow Jackets went 1-1 on the weekend, beating Colorado State relatively handily and losing a heartbreaker to Colorado. Yellow Jackets hold onto their spot in the polls.
14. Oregon – Ducks were on spring break. Pretty sure we saw a couple of them on the Barstool Sports IG tossing outlet passes on the Lito Deck of a Carnival Cruise. Ducks move up by not losing. Big game coming up this weekend at BYU.
15. UCSB – The Gauchos did what they needed to do. They took care of business against UCLA and got by Cal. The boys from Santa Barbara are alive and sorta well. Gauchos host UNH this week in an interesting matchup.
16. Northeastern – Not playing games can only help you. Huskies move up!
17. Simon Fraser – Another example of “No Games – No Problems.” SFU moves up with a big game against Oregon State coming up this weekend.
18. Liberty – Flames are heating up. The young squad from 2017 looks to be growing up. They bounced back nicely with a win over Arizona State after losing a barnburner to Colorado.
19. Georgia – Bid Dawgs Gotta Eat! Georgia continued their winning against MCLA bluebloods with a 10-8 win over Colorado State. Pups are off for a week.
20. UCONN – Huskies are 3-0 and knocked off a PCLL opponent URI 16-4.

Others considered (no particular order): Arizona State, Clemson, Colorado State, California, Oregon State, Cal Poly