Syracuse's Michelle Tumolo: '[Northwestern] Seemed Scared To Play Us'

For those of us who were unfortunate enough to watch the 2012 Women's Lacrosse National Championship, our brains will forever be scarred with what we saw.

Almost all of us were watching our first or one of the few women's lacrosse games we've ever seen and the Northwestern Wildcats basically ensured that almost all of us will never watch another one. Their stalling tactics and all-around wussy style of play won them the game but also also set the sport back about 20 years.

If the Native Americans who invented lacrosse were watching, I'm willing to guess they were saying "What the f*** is this?" In their native tongue, of course.

The shame of it was that the previous two games that the Syracuse Orange played were barnburners and instant classics. Both games featured tons of scoring, great action and heart-stopping comebacks. If more people had watched that brand of women's lacrosse, we might be onto something.

Syracuse star Michelle Tumolo, who's career ended with the frustrating loss, recently spoke to Craig Hoffman over at Orange Fizz and, refreshingly, voiced the same frustrations and annoyances that we had watching Northwestern pull a Pat Dye on Syracuse all game long.

"We weren’t really expecting a national championship team – that had been in the national championship for eight straight years – would be stalling on a team they had already beaten. You know, it was really just mind boggling to us because, I’m not gonna lie, they kinda seemed scared to play us. Because they saw what we did against Florida."

"I actually said to the girl covering me, ‘This is so boring. I cannot believe this. This is why no one wants to watch the game. This is bad, this is so bad.’"

Now, Northwestern can simply say "scoreboard" and point to their trophy and, sure, they won the game within the rules. But...as far as Syracuse fans (and, I would imagine, most women's lacrosse fans) are concerned, that title comes with an asterisk. Maybe not officially but those who watched the game know it's true.