By Brian Davidson
From the desk of: Amanda Rawson
Like all growing sports, college lacrosse is experiencing a rise in parity. A few short years ago it was almost unthinkable that Johns Hopkins would lose two overtime games in a row, one of them to Hofstra. Number 7 Syracuse recently played three overtime games in a row.
Virginia Coach Dom Starsia thinks the phenomena of one-goal games is here to stay. "We've often talked about parity in lacrosse, but I don't think we'll see true parity in my lifetime, not on the final weekend of lacrosse. Those teams will continue to be there for a while. "But where you see parity now is that those teams ranked anywhere from No. 15 to 35 are now more capable of playing with or beating the big boys on a normal day."
Collegiate lacrosse teams have been able to shrink the talent gap between themselves and the traditional powers because of the tremendous growth of lacrosse and influx of Canadian players into the American game.
More and more rosters have players from California, Florida and Colorado. There is even a sprinkling of players from Texas and Arizona.
It's all about parity. Right now, college lacrosse is as competitive as it has ever been, with the exception of the Duke Redshirts, who have separated themselves from the rest of the field.
But that might not last long as some think. As the talent pool deepens and parity reigns programs will continue to rise. With success will bring bigger recruiting budgets and ultimately more opportunity for potential student athletes.
"Right now, we're all working to see if we can close that gap between all of us and Duke," Starsia said. "For the rest of us, anything can happen on any given day."
Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-sp.preston19mar19,0,4235454.column
