The Lacrosse Newsletter - Feb 4, 2022

🙌 Down. Set. Whistle!

College lacrosse is back. Kick off your weekend with Happy Hour Lacrosse as Robert Morris visits Duke at 5:00PM ET tonight on ACC Network.

Then break out the quadbox for Saturday's afternoon slate:

• Bucknell @ Mercer - 11am ET

• Jacksonville @ Hopkins - 12pm ET - (ESPN3)

• High Point @ Maryland - 12pm ET - (BTN+)

• Mount St. Mary's @ Navy - 12pm ET - (ESPN+)

• NJIT @ Delaware - 12pm ET - (Flo Sports)

• Detroit Mercy @ Ohio State - 12pm ET - (BTN+)

• Air Force @ Virginia - 1pm ET - (ACCNX)

• Merrimack @ Hofstra - 1pm ET - (Flo Sports)

• Providence @ Holy Cross - 1pm ET - (ESPN+)

• Lafayette @ Penn State - 1pm ET

• LIU @ Rutgers - 1pm ET - (BTN+)

• Denver @ Utah - 3pm ET

• Bellarmine @ Michigan - 4pm ET

📈 IL's Top 50 Players for the 2022 Season

Inside Lacrosse counted down the Top 50 men's and women's lacrosse players for the 2022 season. Spoiler alert: 2021 Tewaaraton winner Charlotte North (Boston College) is #1.

North scored an NCAA-record 102 goals and led the 4-seed Eagles past 1-seed UNC and 3-seed Syracuse for the first National Championship in program history.

Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein's Eagles return 83% of their scoring, goalie Rachel Hall and IL's top-ranked incoming first-year Mallory Hasselbeck.

🍊 Gait, Petro and the Syracuse Reformation

'88 and '89 McLaughlin Award winner Gary Gait. '88 and '89 Schmeisser Award winner Dave Pietramala. Rivals from their respective days at Syracuse and Hopkins to their years representing Canada and the USA.

Now, they're on the same coaching staff at Syracuse.

USA Lacrosse Magazine's Nelson Rice traveled upstate to witness their dynamic — and he learned the origin behind Gary Gait's #22.

Speaking of Syracuse...

👕 SLEEVES!

Our long national nightmare is over.

The Syracuse men's lacrosse team will be wearing sleeves in 2022.

...But the job's not finished when it comes to uniforms.

🤼‍♂️ Lehigh FO Mike Sisselberger joins wrestling team

Don't worry — he's playing lacrosse, too.

Sisselberger won 79.5% of his faceoffs in his first season as a starter for the Mountain Hawks. He combines NFL-caliber strength with precise technique. His wrestling stance prepared him for the NCAA's move to standing neutral grip (SNG) only.

"It's very rare when you're playing chess that a kid has an assault rifle on him," PLL veteran Jerry Ragonese told Nelson Rice. "Mike's so strong and compact that even if you get your hands on him, he's going to take you for a ride. It's like grabbing the leash of a running bull."

Read Nelson Rice's full story on Sisselberger a.k.a. Misselberger a.k.a. Quadzilla.

⚔️ Who fills Ian Laviano's role on the crease?

The back-to-back National Champions have a huge question entering February: Who will fill Ian Laviano's role on the crease?

Laviano graduated with 122 goals and 29 assists on 36% shooting — but his contributions on the ride, cutting on the crease, soaring above the six-helmet celebration with a between-the-legs dunk celebration cannot be measured.

"There are so many things that he does that bond us, that excite us, that generate enthusiasm," head coach Lars Tiffany told CBS19 Sports.

Laviano is at home as the righty finisher inside the 'Hoos 2-2-2 set. With Connor Shellenberger or Matt Moore initiating from X, Payton Cormier complimenting Laviano as a lefty inside, and Peter Garno and Dox Aitken stretching the field vertically, that set is unstoppable. Inside, Laviano is always confusing the defense — both physically as a cutter and verbally.

"You can hear their defense, like, 'NO! NO! NO! NO! We're not in Gator! We're in Bama!'" said Tiffany. "And he'll be like, 'GATOR! GATOR! GATOR!'"

When Laviano (#3) recognizes his cut is a dead-end, he'll seal another defender to free up Aitken and company along the perimeter.

Those seals lead to seal-and-rolls. Look above GLE here. Laviano screens for Charlie Bertrand. Bertrand cuts. Xander Dickson throws back to Shellenberger behind the cage. And Shellenberger sees Laviano rolling for the alley oop.

Laviano's lightning quick low-to-high release forced defenses to collapse early and often for four years. He showed up in the biggest moments -- like double overtime on Memorial Day weekend.