🇺🇸 AMERICA'S GAME OF THE YEAR

Get ready for the most patriotic rivalry in college lacrosse.

On Saturday, the Army West Point Black Knights will host the Navy Midshipmen at Michie Stadium. This historic Patriot League clash will be broadcast live at 1 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.

This is one of those games where you can usually throw the records out the window, but this year the records are actually quite interesting.

Army is 8-2 on the season. They started the year with seven straight wins and peaked at No. 1 in The People’s Top 20. Since then, however, they’ve lost crucial Patriot League matchups against Boston U and Colgate.

Navy, on the other hand, is 7-4 after a slow start. They were 3-3 a month ago and have since won four of their past five outings, including an overtime win against Johns Hopkins.

At 4-1 in Patriot League play, Navy is currently tied with Boston U and Colgate for the best record in the conference. Army is a game behind those programs at 3-2 — tied with Lehigh and Loyola.

There are nine teams in the Patriot League and six of them will qualify for the conference tournament. While both Army and Navy are likely to qualify, this game will be very impactful in terms of potential seeding. The top two teams in the Patriot League tournament receive a first-round bye and go straight to the semifinals.

The key to victory for Army in this game will be shutting down Navy’s leading scorer, attackman Xavier Arline (29 points), who also plays quarterback for the Navy football team. Arline will likely draw reigning Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year AJ Pilate in one-on-one coverage.

For Navy to win, the Midshipmen must find a way to neutralize Army face-off specialist Will Coletti, who ranks second in NCAA Division I with a win rate of 64.3 percent. Navy freshman Zach Hayashi (.567 FO%) will have his work cut out for him at the face-off dot on Saturday.

Army cruised to an 11-6 victory over Navy last year, but this series has yielded several close battles recently. There have been four one-goal outcomes since 2016, including three overtime finishes.

👀 Battle For No. 1 in PLL Draft?

On Sunday afternoon, Duke and Virginia will take center stage. This is a matchup between two top-five teams, but there’s also a PLL Draft subplot to explore.

Duke’s Brennan O’Neill has been the presumptive No. 1 overall pick since winning the Tewaaraton Award and MVP of the Men’s Lacrosse World Championship last year. In recent weeks, however, Virginia’s Connor Shellenberger has wedged open the debate.

A handful of anonymous PLL Coaches recently provided their thoughts on the 2024 draft class to Inside Lacrosse, and at least one coach says Shellenberger has overtaken O’Neill as the top prospect.

Shellenberger (4.82) is averaging more points per game than O’Neill (4.54) so far this season. His Virginia team (10-1) also has a better record than O’Neill’s Duke squad (10-3) heading into this weekend’s clash at Koskinen Stadium.

O’Neill has been under the microscope this season, and he’s been difficult to spot in each of Duke’s three losses. He is a combined 4-for-31 shooting (.129) in defeats against Penn, Syracuse and Notre Dame.

O’Neill is the only player who ranks in the top five nationally in both goals (38) and total points (59), but Shellenberger has been more consistent this season. He quarterbacks a Virginia offense that leads the country with over 10 assisted goals per game. Even in the Cavaliers’ lone loss against Hopkins this season, Shellenberger still had six points (4 goals, 2 assists).

What these two players do on Sunday will impact the draft narrative moving forward. O’Neill can silence his critics by replicating his performances from last year, when he had 12 points (8 goals, 4 assists) in a pair of wins over Virginia. Shellenberger was limited to six points in those losses (1 goal, 5 assists).

Virginia has not defeated Duke in the regular season since 2004, although the Hoos have claimed three ACC/NCAA Tournament wins over the Blue Devils in that span. Shellenberger can significantly boost his draft stock with a win this weekend.

Tune in on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on ACC Network.

📺 Weekend TV & Streaming Info

NCAA streaming info courtesy of Inside Lacrosse (all times Eastern):

Friday, April 12:
5 p.m. — UMass Lowell at Merrimack (ESPN+)
7 p.m. — Utah at Mercer (ESPN+)
7:30 p.m. — Le Moyne at Bucknell (ESPN+)

Saturday, April 13:
11 a.m. — Air Force at Detroit Mercy (ESPN+)
11 a.m. — Queens at Robert Morris (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Cleveland State at Bellarmine (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Vermont at Bryant (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Canisius at Wagner (Wagner All-Access)
12 p.m. — Stony Brook at Delaware (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Fairfield at Monmouth (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Towson at Hampton (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Saint Joseph’s at Hobart (Hobart All-Access)
12 p.m. — Lindenwood at Jacksonville (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Michigan at Penn State (BTN+)
12 p.m. — Sacred Heart at Mount St. Mary’s (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — VMI at Quinnipiac (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Navy at Army (CBS Sports Network)
1 p.m. — Lafayette at Boston U (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Drexel at Hofstra (FloSports)
1 p.m. — Harvard at Penn (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Loyola at Holy Cross (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Albany at NJIT (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Syracuse at UNC (ACCNX)
1 p.m. — UMass at St. Bonaventure (No Streaming Info)
1 p.m. — Villanova at St. John’s (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — UMBC at Binghamton (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Georgetown at Denver (Pioneer All-Access)
3 p.m. — Manhattan at Siena (ESPN+)
3 p.m. — Providence at Marquette (FloSports)
3:30 p.m. — Princeton at Brown (ESPN+)
3:30 p.m. — Yale at Dartmouth (ESPN+)
4 p.m. — Lehigh at Colgate (ESPN+)
7 p.m. — Richmond at High Point (ESPN+)
7 p.m. — LIU at Marist (ESPN+)
7 p.m. — Rutgers at Maryland (Big Ten Network)

Sunday, April 14:
12:30 p.m. — Cornell at Notre Dame (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Virginia at Duke (ACC Network)
7 p.m. — Johns Hopkins at Ohio State (Big Ten Network)