CCLA Weekend Preview
By Josh Dutt
With under three weeks remaining in the regular season, division races in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association (CCLA) are heating up. This weekend teams from both Division 1 and Division 2 will continue their quest to be conference champions.
Friday features a Division 1 South matchup between the Buffalo Bulls and the Ball State Cardinals. The Bulls are currently tied with Indiana for the South Division lead with a 3-0 conference record. They are lead by goalie Geoff Lehman, who is saving 75% of the shots he faces. Buffalo has been getting offensive contributions from several sources, with five players over 10 points, and one with nine.
Ball State has had a rough go of it this season, managing only 32 goals in six losses. Senior attackman Patrick Balsley has accounted for just under one third of the Cardinals goals tallying 10 on the season.
The other contest on the docket for Friday pits Division 2 Grand Valley versus Division 1 Western Michigan. WMU will try to rebound from a loss to Michigan State, while Grand Valley hope to continue its season long winning streak.
The Lakers made the biggest jump of any D2 team in the latest Lax World MCLA Division 2 Top 25 Poll, jumping 13 spots to number 6 overall. GVSU has experienced a great deal of success under first year head coach Murle Greer, and will give the Broncos all they can handle. The Lakers are led on offense by Chris Idema and Cameron Holding.
In only their second game since the death of fall ball teammate Joey Metzelaars, the Broncos left East Lansing with a bad taste in their mouth after letting the game slip away in the second half. WMU looks to bounce back and put the first blemish on the undefeated record of Grand Valley.
Saturday is a day full of games. Pre-season Top 25 team Carnegie Mellon will look to right the ship traveling to Taylor to take on the Trojans in a Division 2 South contest. Carnegie Mellon has struggled to a 1-6 record to date, a far cry from their high hopes to start the season. For Taylor it will be only their fourth game of the season, with the Trojans having beat Rose Hulman, and dropping games against Davenport and Grand Valley thus far.
The Central Michigan Chippewas will head south to Illinois to take on the University of Illinois in a non-conference matchup. The game will be one of two in Illinois before they head back to the mitten to close out the regular season against their directional counterparts Western and Eastern Michigan. CMU will look to rally behind leading scorers Marcel Kern and Justin Schaufler after dropping their last game against Clemson.
In the last of the 1 p.m. start times, Eastern Michigan will host Michigan State. The Eagles will look to avenge last years loss to the Spartans. MSU comes into the game on a hot streak, having beaten Western Michigan and Lindenwood within the week. Shutting down MSU’s offensive attack figures to be the focus of the Eagles given the Spartans scoring prowess of late.
A Division 2 North battle will pit UM-Dearborn against Saginaw Valley. The UMD Wolves will look for their first division win while Saginaw hopes to add number 3 to its win column. Both teams will have to tighten up their defense if they hope to win this game.
Meanwhile in Grove City, the 2nd Ranked Flyers will come into town to take on an upstart Grove City team. Dayton will be looking to return to its winning ways after being doubled up in their last contest 18-9 against St. Thomas.
Ball State will play its second game in as many days when they head to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers. Though it remains to be seen if the Cardinals win on Friday, a win against Pittsburgh would give Ball State something to build upon. Pittsburgh will be doing its best to get back into the divisional race with 2 division games remaining on their schedule.
Grand Valley will take part in a double header Saturday, taking on both Wheaton and Northern Michigan. Northern will continue its chas
e of division
leading Calvin College behind Connor Fox and Kyle Kelly-Pepich.
Wheaton will then travel north to play Ferris State at 7 in the evening. In other Division 2 action, Rose Hulman travels to Missouri to play Missouri S&T. RHIT will look for its first win of the season.
Rounding out the weekends games, the top ranked Michigan Wolverines continue their trip to Colorado and will take on Colorado State. Also, Purdue will travel to West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers. While U of M’s talent is not in question, Colorado State will be the 7th top 25 team the Wolverines will play this season. Purdue and West Virginia will each be looking for their first conference win.
