Providence will join Syracuse in the Big East lacrosse conference next season. For their sake, I hope they make a couple tweaks before then.
The Defending National Champion Syracuse lacrosse team opened it's 2009 campaign with a resounding 22-3 thumping of the Friars on Sunday. (In new uniforms, no less) Senior attackman Kenny Nims scored a career-high eight points (three goals and five assists) and sophomore attackman Stephen Keogh scored a career-high five goals for the Orange who led from the get-go and never looked back:
Providence (0-1), which will begin phasing in scholarships in earnest when it joins the Big East next season, simply had no answers for SU (1-0) at either end of the field in a game that was remarkably similar to last year's season opener when SU defeated future Big East member Villanova 21-6. The Orange held a whopping 55-12 advantage in shots and at one point scored 15 consecutive goals. It went 5-for-6 on the man-up and killed all seven of its man-down situations. It won 17 of 27 faceoffs and ruled groundballs 29-21.
Coach Desko was pleased with the team's performance and they'll be expected to keep it up with Army coming to town on Friday. The Black Knights are 1-0 after a similar beat-down of VMI.
The ORange remain #1 in the USILA Poll and #2 in the Nike/IL Poll.