PLL Semifinals: Rivalries Renewed with Title Game Berth on the Line

In the new Premier Lacrosse League playoff format, the only setup determined by conference standings was that conference winners — the New York Atlas and Utah Archers — received the top seeds on opposing ends of the bracket.

Every team seeded after that was determined by record, no matter the conference.

After the quarterfinals, the league was left with de facto conference finals. It also provided two matchups between teams with a lot of history.

The Atlas completed an impressive turnaround in 2024; the team improved from a 2-8 record in 2023, Mike Pressler’s first year as head coach, to 7-3 and the top seed. The impressive offense — led by Jeff Teat and his PLL-record 64 points — finished first in scores per game, scoring differential, assists, ground balls, shots per game, shooting percentage, power play percentage and passes.

Their reward was the opportunity to play the Maryland Whipsnakes, who are both the hottest team in the league and the first team to defeat the Atlas this season.

Maryland is the winner of five consecutive games and became only the second team at the time (out of three throughout the year) to sweep its homecoming weekend. In that span, the Whipsnakes averaged 14.6 goals per game and have a plus-21 scoring differential.

While Maryland looks like a completely different team from the start of the season, defender and captain Matt Dunn said their focus has only been what’s right in front of them, not what’s potentially down the line.

“The thing about this league … things can change so fast,” Dunn said before the team’s final regular-season game. “Teams get hot and cold. It’s really hard to put your finger on why. The name of the game is to get in the playoffs. A big mantra for us is focusing on us, focusing on the next play and the things we can control and try not to ride the ups and downs of a game or of a week.”

With the semifinals played on Long Island, New York would have homefield advantage, just like it did when it beat Maryland 17-13 in the final game of the first week of the season. But the Whipsnakes have been hometown spoilers, going 3-1 during the opposition’s homecoming weekends.

In the quarterfinals, the Whipsnakes endured a back-and-forth contest that came down to the last couple seconds. Meanwhile, New York had the bye to rest and recuperate. Pressler acknowledged his team has struggled coming out of bye weeks, losing to the Whipsnakes after the league-wide bye between weeks three and four and to the Boston Cannons after the All-Star Game.

Pressler was pleased after the Atlas topped the Archers following its team bye week, and New York must have a similar mindset in the rubber match between Eastern Conference rivals, who they are 2-7 against all-time.

“This is the first time the bye has been part of the league structure, so everyone is going to have to navigate that and figure that out,” he said after beating Utah. “Coming off our bye last weekend, the previous two byes we’ve had, the league one early on and then the All-Star Game, we did not respond well. It was imperative for our own confidence to understand we have to be ready to go in this one. I call it the curse of the bye week, and our guys responded in a positive way.”

The Archers won their first championship in 2023 and hope to become the first repeat winners since the 2019-20 Whipsnakes. While Utah entered the 2023 postseason as the top seed, it also ran into some luck: it didn’t have to play the Chaos, who were knocked out in the quarterfinals. From 2020-22, the Chaos knocked the Archers out of the playoffs each year — and twice in the semifinals.

The teams split the 2024 regular season series and share a mutual respect for each other.

“This felt like the most of a playoff game thus far,” Chaos midfielder Kyle Jackson said after the team’s 15-14 victory in Baltimore, “where it took every ounce of energy to come out with a win.”

“They play hard. They do some things differently on the defensive end, and they have the great equalizer in [goalie] Blaze [Riorden],” said Archers captain Tom Schreiber, who will miss the rest of the playoffs with an injury. “This is why you do it. I’d rather play in one of these games all day and get on the winning side and not the losing side, but we want to compete. That’s why we do this.”

There is some history in Utah’s favor. Even though the 2020 Whipsnakes is the only team to repeat as champions, every team that has won the championship has played in the finals the following year. If Utah is to keep that trend going, it will have to beat its biggest playoff thorn and do so without Schreiber, who sustained a fractured clavicle during the final weekend of the regular season.

“You don’t replace Tom Schreiber, both as a leader and as a player,” Archers head coach Chris Bates said after that game against the California Redwoods.

There are some reinforcements coming for Utah, as attackman Matt Moore was activated off injured reserve. After tallying only one assist in his first four games this season, Moore had nine points in his final three games before leaving the team’s last game against Carolina with a right AC joint sprain.

Even though the Archers are the higher seed (No. 4), Carolina (No. 6) is no stranger to going into playoff games as an underdog.

In 2020, the Chaos entered the knockout round as the lowest seed — failing to win a single game during the truncated bubble season — before making a run to the title game against the Whipsnakes. The Chaos started 2021 0-3 and entered the playoffs as the sixth seed, but they once again turned on the intensity and won the championship.

The 2023 season started even worse. They lost the first four games and slipping into the playoffs as the seventh seed despite only winning two games. Like clockwork, the Chaos reached the championship game for the third consecutive season.

The “Playoff Chaos” are back in full form, earning the last seed in the playoffs before upsetting the second-seeded Cannons, who were tied for the best record in the league. Carolina held them to only four goals.

“You want to say it’s us against the world? I, personally, don’t really believe that because I have confidence in our group,” Riorden said. “Every chance we get to spend together and be inside that locker room and lock arms and get the opportunity to compete is one that we’re not going to take for granted.”

The semifinals feature two of the most storied and intense rivalries in the league. With a chance to compete for a championship at stake in the latest chapters of these intertwined histories, there is likely to be plenty of drama on the field.