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February 15, 2004
Michigan
Men’s Lacrosse
2004
Weekly Release #2
Upcoming Schedule
● Monday, February 23, 4:00pm EST -
vs. Central Florida – Orlando, Fla (UCF IM Field)
● Wednesday, February 25, 7:00pm EST
- vs. Florida – Gainsville, Fla (UVS Field)
● Saturday, February 28, 7:00pm PST
- vs. BYU – Orlando, Fla (Winter Park High School)
● Saturday, March 6, 8:00pm EST -
vs. Buffalo – Ann Arbor, Mich. (Oosterbaan Fieldhouse)
This Week – Heading South
After a week of practice and studies the University of Michigan will head to
the central Florida area for a trio of games vs. three regional opponents.
The Wolverines will open next week’s games against Central Florida on Monday
(Feb. 23) at 4:00pm in Orlando at UCF IM Field, vs. Florida on Wednesday
(Feb. 25) at 7:00pm in Gainsville at UVS Field, and finally squaring off
against Brigham Young on Saturday (Feb. 28) at 7:00pm at Winter Park High
School in Orlando.
The trip will be the Wolverines last time on the road for almost a month as
the Wolverines will begin conference play with a four-game home streak
featuring conference games vs. Buffalo and Oakland, along with
non-conference games vs.Western Michigan and Arizona. Michigan’s next foray
on the road won’t come until a March 27 contest at Pittsburgh.
Last Week
Last week, the Wolverines faced off against Division III teams, the Kenyon
Lords and the Wooster Fighting Scots of the North Coast Athletic Conference,
in a pair of scrimmages Friday, February 13. Neither game’s results were
recorded nor were statistics kept.
Each team participated in a half-hour long scrimmage against the others
broken up into 15-minute halves. Roughly 200 fans gathered at Oosterbaan
field house to watch the Wolverines prepare for the 2004 season and finalize
their roster going into their first week of regular season action in
Florida. Junior goaltender Dan Webber (Weston, Mass./Weston) played three
of the team’s four quarters of play while freshman Ryan Kaufman (Olney, Md./Magruder)
finished the contest vs. Kenyon and also played in the five minute extended
time that came after the second mini-half. The Wolverines matched the play
of both DIII teams scoring a combined 14 goals over the course of the two
scrimmages
Scouting the Opponents
#7 Florida - A SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC) opponent, the
#7 ranked Florida Gators are currently (as of Feb. 16) 3-0, with wins over
USF, Emory, and Georgia. The Gators are coming off a 2003 season where they
posted a 12-3 regular season record, with a near perfect conference record
(6-1) and beat Virginia Tech to win their first ever conference
championship. Florida beat Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of the USLIA
Nationals in St. Louis last year before succumbing to UC Santa Barbara in
the second round. The Wolverines last played Florida in 2001 in Gainsville
defeating the Gators 12-6.
Florida will be looking to reload after losing their three top scorers from
last year, Danny Hogan, Brian Montgomery, and Chris O’donnell. Florida
returns three goaltenders with at least one year of experience in senior
Stephen Maszy, junior Dan Rodriguez, and sophomore Phil Rohfling.
Head Coach Stephen Larson returns for his second year as head coach after
finishing 18-4 overall last year. Larson is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara
in 1998.
http://grove.ufl.edu/~uflax/men.html
#4 Brigham Young - A representative of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse
Conference, the Brigham Young Cougars 3-1 on the 2004 season and have won
three in row. BYU is riding the wave of a victory over D-III Whittier for
the first time in club history. In 2003 BYU was 12-5 and finished second in
the RMILL. They split two games with the Wolverines last season, dropping
the first game 10-7 on March 14, but coming back to defeat U-M in the USLIA
Quaterfinals 12-8. BYU enventually lost in the semi-finals to U-C
Santa-Barbara.
BYU returns senior captain Jordan Peel who notched 31-4-5 totals last year
for Cougars while finishing ninth overall in points in the RMILL. Brigham
Young also returns junior Mark Tschaggeny who finished with 21-9-30.
Entering his second year as the starting goaltender is junior Tyler Storer.
Entering his 10th season as head coach of BYU Jason Lamb brings four
conference and two national championships worth of experience. Lamb was
also a four-year player in goal for BYU in 1987, ‘90, ‘91, and ‘92. Lamb is
also an At-Large member of the USL MDIA Executive Committee for the USLIA.
www.byulacrosse.com
Injury Update
The Wolverines will head to Florida with junior
defenseman Kirk Kozel (Barrington, Ill./Taft) still suffering
from a shoulder injury that lists him as day-to-day. Coach Paul hopes to
have Kozel back for the team’s contests in Florida. Senior long-stick
midfielder
Ray Chang
(The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands)
is also listed as day-to-day with a minor ankle
injury but should be ready by next week’s action.
Road Warriors
Michigan has begun each of the past season three season playing the majority
of their games on the road. In 2001 and 2002 U-M played three of their
first four on the road, while the 2003 Wolverines played their first six
contests on the road.
Michigan in the Polls
The Wolverines, who were picked to repeat for their sixth straight CCLA
championship, are currently ranked #5 in the USL MDIA poll. The next poll
will be released on Wednesday, February 25 on
www.uslia.com.
Current USL MDIA Top 10 (preseason poll)
Place
Team Points
1 Colorado State
748
2
Cal-Santa Barbara 700
3
Sonoma State
690
4
Brigham Young
666
5
Michigan
620
6
Texas A&M
609
7
Florida
556
8
Simon Fraser
476
9
Minnesota-Duluth
441
10
Cal Poly SLO
415
(the rest of the top-25 poll can be seen at (http://www.uslia.com/polls/polls.shtml)
Contact:
Joe Hennessey (734) 276-8493
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