Sheer joy. Unbridled pain.
We’ve reached the point of the season where the emotions of sport get pushed to the outer limits of the scale. It’s win or go home time.
On Friday night, we saw that in Milwaukee as Marquette upset Denver 18-11 behind five goals from Wisconsin native Nolan Rappis to earn the final spot in the Big East tournament.
First-year head coach Jake Richard, a Marquette alum who bleeds blue and gold, lost to Michigan 14-1 in his season debut. Three straight Big East losses, including one-goal heartbreakers to Georgetown and Villanova, seemingly had the Golden Eagles missing the conference tourney and pondering what comes next in the offseason.
But on Friday, despite falling behind 3-0 early, Marquette pulled it all together with was a dominant performance. What did it mean? Pictures, or in this case video, speak louder than words.
POSTSEASON 🔜#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/4OSYJB8LO1
— Marquette Lacrosse (@MarquetteMLax) April 26, 2025
And once you get to the conference tourney, Marquette has proven anything can happen. In 2016, Marquette stunned Denver in the first Big East championship game to go to the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. Richard was an All-American for that team.
The following year, Richard’s first as an assistant coach at Marquette, the Golden Eagles became the first No. 4 seed to win the Big East tourney and went to the NCAA tournament for the second time.
For Denver, the pain of losing out will only be magnified when the remaining Big East teams come to their home field, the pre-determined host of the conference tournament.
On Saturday, Duke didn’t necessarily need to win, but an unforgettable season for Virginia still held hope if the Cavaliers could magically string together a season-ending run. It would need to start with a regular season win over Duke, something Virginia has not done since April 17, 2004.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the string hit 20 consecutive regular season losses to the Blue Devils as Duke’s Benn Johnston scored with 27 seconds left in overtime following a Virginia turnover near midfield to give his team a 10-9 victory. As Duke stormed the field, you could see the agony on the Virginia players that fell to the ground, wend to a knee and walked off in disbelief.
HEY GAME, BENN JOHNSTON CALLED ☎️😈
Shoutout Mac Christmas and Aidan Maguire for making the play 🙌
📺 ACC Network#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/wHISTCrpeb— Duke Men's Lacrosse (@DukeMLAX) April 26, 2025
Virginia, which had trailed by as many as three goals in the first half, had a chance to win it in overtime, but Griffin Schutz tried to go five-hole on Duke goalie Patrick Jameison and the bounce shot seemingly hit Jameison in the rear end. It was the 14th and most important save of the game for the U.S. U20 training team member.
Duke moves on to next week’s ACC tournament and has likely wrapped up a NCAA tournament at-large bid no matter what happens in Charlotte. Virginia, at 6-8, is done and out of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017.
One team moving on. One team done. That’s sports.
Random Observations
This isn’t the trifecta Kevin Corrigan was looking for. Notre Dame is trying to become the first team to win three straight NCAA championships since Princeton did so from 1996 to 1998. But to do so, it’s offense will have to get way more consistent. For the third straight game, Notre Dame was dormant in the first half before exploding in the second half, this time beating Penn 10-8. In wins over Virginia, North Carolina and Penn, Notre Dame has combined for just six first-half goals while scoring 28 times in the second half.
Bubble busted? A banged-up Michigan team fell to Rutgers 11-8 in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament and that will likely end any chance of an at-large bid for the Wolverines, who won the Big Ten tournament the last two seasons and beat Maryland earlier this year. In the other opening round game in the Big Ten, Penn State held off a late charge from Johns Hopkins to beat the Blue Jays 13-12. The Blue Jays, who started the season 4-0, posted their last win of the season on March 15, a 12-9 win over Navy that had them at 6-2.
In a weird bit of timing, at the same time former Maryland midfielder Dante Trader Jr. was getting drafted by the Miami Dolphins, another two-sport star was laying on the turf. Notre Dame’s Matt Jeffery, the No. 1 lacrosse recruit in the country and a special teams player on the Irish football team, took a big hit after taking a shot against Penn. Initially, a stretcher was brought out onto the field, but fortunately, Jeffery was able to walk off the field on his own power, but was wearing a neck brace.
By the Numbers
9 • Goals scored by Georgetown freshman Jack Ransom as Georgetown beat Villanova 17-9 to win the Big East regular season championship. A two-time USA Lacrosse All-American from Charlotte (N.C.) Catholic, Ransom now has 15 goals in the last two games, his first two starts of the season, after scoring 11 combined in his first 11 games.
4 • Wins over ranked wins for Richmond this year, the most in school history. The Spiders knocked off Saint Joseph’s, 10-7, on Friday to win the A-10 regular season title outright.
51 • Goals for Army’s Jackson Eicher this season, tying the school record. Eicher had six as the Black Knights dominated Loyola, 18-6, to wrap up the Patriot League regular season title.
Title
226
NCAA-record goals for Cornell's C.J. Kirst after he scored twice in a 10-8 victory over Brown. Kirst accomplished the feat in just 61 games and broke the mark of 224 that Virginia's Payton Cormier set just last season.
1985 • The last time Hobart had beaten UMass before the Statesmen won 16-15 on Friday night. Hobart had gone 0-7 against UMass since moving up the Division I ranks.
46 • Assists this season for Providence’s Ryan Bell, breaking the school mark of 45 he set last season. He had six on Friday in a 16-10 win over St. John’s.
9 • Wins for Lafayette this season, the highest total for the program since 1984. The Leopards reached the milestone win with a 12-7 win over Lehigh, its first win over its archrival since 2009.
74 • School record points for VMI’s Luke Rusterucci, breaking the mark of 72 set by David Hope in 1988.
100 • Career points for Princeton’s Nate Kabiri after getting a goal and two assists in the Tigers 18-7 win over Yale. Kabiri is just the sixth Princeton player to reach 100 points before the end of his sophomore year, joining a stacked list that includes Kevin Lowe, Jesse Hubbard, Ryan Boyle, Michael Sowers and Coulter Mackesy.
1 • Atlantic 10 wins in St. Bonaventure’s first three seasons in the league. The Bonnies scored the last five goals of the game to stun High Point 10-9 on Saturday.
Title
20
Shots taken by North Carolina's Dom Pietramala in the Tar Heels 14-12 win at Syracuse. Pietramala missed on his first nine shots, but then got hot. He scored three times in a span of less than five minutes in the second quarter and finished the game with six goals.
12 • Wins for Fairfield, tying the school record, after a 14-8 victory over Monmouth. Julian Radossich had five caused turnovers, bringing his school single-season record up to 41.
22 • Saves for Air Force goalie Jake Marek in a 16-15 overtime win against Utah that gave the Falcons a share of the ASUN regular season title.
5 • Career-high goals for Harvard’s Logan Ip in an 11-10 victory at Brown.
