NCAA Lacrosse Final Four weekend -One of my favorite sports weekends of the year - 2013 NCAA Men's & Women's Lacrosse Final Four from Philadelphia

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9293097

Womens Semifinals being streamed LIVE Friday night via 
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=886438

2013 NCAA Lacrosse Championship - Semifinal #1: 

Cornell Big Red vs #7 Duke Blue Devils from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Saturday  May 25  2:30 p.m., ESPN2, DirecTV Channel 209 

2013 NCAA Lacrosse Championship - Semifinal #2: 
#4 Denver Pioneers vs #1 Syracuse Orange from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Saturday  May 25  5:00 p.m., ESPN2, DirecTV Channel 209

Repeat showings:

Semifinal #1: Cornell Big Red vs Duke Blue Devils 

Sunday  May 26  6:00 a.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Semifinal #2: Denver Pioneers vs Syracuse Orange 

Sunday  May 26  8:00 a.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

http://espn.go.com/espnw/college-sports/9310210/2013-women-lacrosse-final-four-north-carolina-uses-toughness-advance-face-maryland

2013 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship from Villanova Stadium in Villanova, PA.

Sunday  May 26  8:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208

2013 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Monday  May 27  1:00 p.m. ESPN, DirecTV Channel 206 

SkyCam Presentation at 1:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Post Game 

Monday  May 27  3:30 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208

Recap of the championship game: highlights, analysis, interviews with players and coaches

Repeat showings:

2013 NCAA Women's College Lacrosse - Championship from Villanova Stadium in Villanova, PA.

Monday  May 27  7:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

2013 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship 

Monday  May 27  9:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Tuesday  May 28  1:00 a.m.ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Tuesday  May 28  7:00 a.m. ESPNU DirecTV Channel 208 

Taped broadcasts: 

2013 NCAA Women's College Lacrosse Semifinals: 
Semifinal #1

#3 North Carolina Tar Heels vs #2 Northwestern Wildcats

Tuesday  May 28  1:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Semifinal #2: 

#4 Syracuse Orange vs #1 Maryland Terrapins

Tuesday  May 28  2:30 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Purple Reign Again? It's Orange vs. Purple in Sunday night's title game, as #1 Lady Gators lose to Syracuse in 2nd OT of NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse Semi-final #1, while #3 Northwestern again holds off Terps in repeat of last year's title match in nightcap; AT&T's U-Verse

Purple Reign Again? It's Orange vs. Purple in Sunday night's title game, as #1 Lady Gators lose to Syracuse in 2nd OT of NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse semifinal #1, while #3 Northwestern holds off #4 Terps and hope to capture their 7th NCAA Lacrosse Championship trophy

Owing to the terrible and completely unsatisfactory Internet service I've been getting thru AT&T's U-Verse the past three weeks, where I've seemingly only been able to access the AT&T server maybe 15% of the time that I want, and only then, sometimes for only a few minutes -only five minutes all day Thursday!- this is my first post since early Tuesday morning.


For someone like myself who's not just a blogger and a news junkie, but someone who frequently hears from lots of friends and people I know all over the world, some well-known or very knowledgeable about their particular subject area, whether now in Cannes for the film festival or in LA or London or wherever, NOT having reliable Internet access at home has made me increasingly exasperated.


So it was in that mood, one of almost desperate exasperation, that I tried my best to get online Friday night to watch the two NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse semi-finals up in Long Island at Stony Brook, since they were, amazingly, NOT being televised LIVE on-air, despite all the hundreds of cable stations that presently exist.


I tried a dozen or so times to get onto ESPN3.com or Watch ESPN -which is being heavily promoted on the Mother Ship these days- to watch the #1 third-year Florida Gators play Syracuse, one of only two teams they'd lost to all year, a 2OT defeat in the season-opener at Gainesville. Last weekend I watched the entire second half of what proved to be the Gator's 15-2 laugher of a Quarterfinal victory over a young Penn State state squad in Gainesville on SUN Sports, where the Gator's speed, quickness and depth just seemed to overwhelm a young and improving Nittany Lion team that's freshman and sophomore-centric, with exciting and talented players like freshman Tatum Coffey of Toms River, N.J. 
The Gators were so dominant that they went ahead by ten goals with just under 13 minutes left, so the clock kept running.
http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-lacros/recaps/051912aab.html
(I also had caught most of Penn State's match last month at Ohio State via The BigTenNetwork.)  


But on Friday night, when I wanted to see the exciting Gators -only the second women's
team in history to make the Final Four in their third year of existence -matching UNC about 14 years ago- each time I tried, the server was down.


By the time I finally got online, the exciting double-overtime first game had already concluded, and it was just before the start of the rematch of last year's title on the same field where Kelly Amonte Hiller's talented Northwestern squad beat her alma mater, Maryland, to get revenge on the Terps for beating them in 2010's title match in Towson -which was only about the best womens lacrosse match I ever saw.



WLAX Final Four: A Comeback For The Ages. May 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/dAfXJFqFPZI



Did Syracuse tamper with the lacrosse stick? May 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/3WqQLUmDh_k



McManus: Syracuse sticks with it, tops Florida
May 26 2:37 AM ET 
By Jane McManus, ESPNNewYork.com
http://espn.go.com/espnw/college-sports/7972599/2012-ncaa-women-lacrosse-tournament-syracuse-orange-top-florida-gators-2ot-thriller


Syracuse upsets No. 1 Florida
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7973608/syracuse-upsets-no-1-florida-14-13-semis


Syracuse upsets No. 1 Florida 14-13 in semis
http://online.wsj.com/article/APbe6212bfe613422c90be1b423fa5f7d6.html



NU Athletics video: Lacrosse - NCAA Semifinal Highlights
http://youtu.be/ARTp5XobE04



NU Athletics video: Inside Wildcat Lacrosse Episode 10. Junior Midfielder Bea Conley fills viewers in on the week's preparations between last week's NCAA Quarterfinal victory over Duke and this week's Final Four tourney in Long Island. May 23, 2012.
http://youtu.be/goYHpn5huXM

Since I knew that the second game would be very close, my original plan had been to tape the last ten minutes of the Maryland-Northwestern match on my FLIP camera, and then email it to my sister and youngest niece in Maryland, so they could see how things ended, and even see if anyone they know from the Howard County/Baltimore area was involved in deciding the game.


Unfortunately, the breaks in the streaming were so egregious that while I went ahead and taped it, I chose not to send it because of the often 10-15 second delays.
Very, very frustrating.
I did decide, though, to save it on a DVD as proof of how bad the U-verse service has been.


Note to anybody who cares: when YouTube streamed concerts from Coachella, they were almost flawless, but for whatever reasons, when I've watched games via ESPN3's telecasts, not so much, even before the recent Internet connection problems.



Swedish House Mafia - Save The World, Live From Coachella, April 13, 2012
http://youtu.be/rYrFeo7efEY


When I watched Swedish House Mafia perform LIVE from Coachella last month around 2:15 a.m. or so my time here in Miami, there was maybe only one short flutter the whole time in their roughly 20-minute online performance that was shown. 


Back in March, Northwestern won on the road at Syracuse in overtime, 11-9.
http://youtu.be/1Ry7Mh6C5UE


Sunday night's final between Northwestern and Syracuse will be telecast LIVE at 8 p.m. on ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208. 
See more at http://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-women/d1


-----
Did you know that even if you use the filters that AT&T provides for you for DSL 6.0 or U-Verse if you run both your house telephone phone and your Internet connection thru that phone line, i.e. "co-share," if some AT&T technician that you've never met doesn't type your original order in correctly, despite the fact that your phone number is right there and they could call if they had a question, you will be entered into the sytem as a "dry loop" -internet only- which will then adversely affect your speed and service and mean your speed isn't close to average, year-after-year?


Over five years later, I learned that lesson Friday afternoon when I finally reached a very friendly and knowledgeable AT&T rep who'd tell me the truth and think outside-the-box.
Yes, the sort of person that I have only been trying to find for years -as well as at Bank of America: someone who told me the truth about many things that I didn't know about.
I suspect they were only doing so since I mentioned that I was preparing to do the un-thinkable and actually go over to the Dark Side, and get my Internet service thru the company I loathe more than almost any other, COMCAST.


(Their terrible customer service record on the cable side in Arlington County, VA while I lived there for almost 15 years was legendary, one of the few D.C.-area legends that proved 100% accurate. Using the speed tests that YouTube has embedded with videos, COMCAST is nearly twice as fast in HB as what I currently have with AT&T.)


Did you know that it's AT&T's policy NOT to dispatch someone to check the lines in your neighborhood if you live in the Southeast United States, without first sending someone to a customer's home or business, even if they can tell on their computers at their HQ that the problem is affecting lots of their customers in a given geographical area?
It's true.


(Earlier this week an AT&T rep told me that 26% of their customers in my area were having the same problem I was having, but they still wouldn't just dispatch them to see what the problem was!)


For years I, like perhaps most of you reading this, have assumed that when I or someone else in the neighborhood called-up AT&T to report a problem with the server, help was being sent to check it out.
It wasn't.


Not unless they were willing to risk a $55 service charge if the problem was inside of their house, that is, after they were willing to hang around the house for 4-5 hours waiting for someone to show up.
And again, they already know that the problem ISN'T you.
So why the pretense?

2012 ACC Lacrosse Tourney TV schedule for Men & Women, other NCAA Lacrosse matches on TV, Friday thru Sunday, April 20-22, 2012

The Big Game: Duke at Virginia Men's Lacrosse, Episode One. April 19, 2012.
http://youtu.be/fXoo-3OYQ1o

2012 ACC Lacrosse Tourney TV schedule for Men & Women, other NCAA Lacrosse matches on TV, Friday thru Sunday, April 20-22, 2012

The 2012 ACC Womens Lacrosse tourney is in Cary, N.C. this weekend, hosted by Duke, and games will be available online at ESPN3 and on certain RSN affiliates.


Check your area to see if you will get this on TV or have to go online. Here in South Florida, I will watch via Sun Sports, DirecTV Channel 653 to see thr two games on Friday and Saturday:
http://www.theacc.com/championships/12-womens-lacrosse-championship.html



Friday, April 20, 2012 - Quarterfinals


Noon ET – Boston College vs Virginia
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 10:30pm ET


2pm ET – Virginia Tech vs. Maryland
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic


Saturday, April 21, 2012 - Semifinals


1pm – UNC vs BC/UVA winner 
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 3pm ET


3pm – Duke vs UMD/VT winner 
- FS South 
- Sun Sports 
- CSN Mid-Atlantic 
- NESN – delay broadcast @ 7pm ET


Monday, April 23, 2012 -Championship Game
ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  amd at ESPN3.com
7 p.m. Winners of the two Semifinals on Saturday


------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/04/19/acc-tournament-provides-big-stage-tough-competition-ahead-ncaas



Friday, April 20th, 2012  

ACC Mens Tourney in Charlottesville/UVA on ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  

5 p.m. Duke vs. Maryland 

Last weekend Duke beat UVA at UVA, and Maryland knocked-off Johns Hopkins at Baltimore. 

7:30 p.m. North Carolina vs. Virgina

7 p.m. CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 

Colgate at Bucknell

Saturday, April 21st, 2012

BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610

11 a.m. Air Force at Ohio State 

CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 

Noon Johns Hopkins at Navy

CBS Sports Network, DirecTV Channel 613 

2:30 p.m. Women - #7 Notre Dame at #15 Georgetown

Georgetown is only team to defeat North Carolina this year.

http://www.und.com/allaccess/?media=316352

Sheehan Stanwick Burch and Todd Harris will be doing color commentary and play-by-play here and you know how I love Sheehan. She's a keeper!

ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

3 p.m. Georgetown at Syracuse

BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610

5 p.m. Women - #4 Florida at #1 Northwestern (Tape Delay)

Combining two of my favorite names, Shannon Smith of Northwestern, odds-on favorite to repeat as Tewaarton Award winner, lead the Wildcats against the young and speedy Gators, still reveling in their overtime win at Johns Hopkins last week.

usalacrosse8 video: WD1: Florida Sneaks Past Johns Hopkins in Sudden Death 13-12.  http://youtu.be/HV-G6gOKpIY

ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

5:30 p.m. Notre Dame at Villanova

Sunday, April 22, 2012

ACC Mens Championship at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville/UVA

ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208  

3 p.m. Winners of Friday's Semifinals

Head's-up for Women's lacrosse fans in the Baltimore/DC area

Ohio State's Women's Lacrosse team will be playing in Baltimore on Saturday April 28th against Johns Hopkins at 1 p.m. 

Glenelg High School grads Alayna Markwordt and Katie Chase are on the Buckeyes LAX team, as are Cara Facchina and her younger sister, Mary Kate, from Mount de Sales Academy. Katie and Cara also both played for Hero's.

http://www.hopkinssports.com/allaccess/?media=301333

-----

http://www.youtube.com/user/uslacrosse8

http://espn.go.com/lacrosse/

http://insidelacrosse.com/ilwomen/

http://laxmagazine.com/landing/index

http://www.theacc.com/championships/index.html

Must-see TV tonight: Women's Lacrosse - #1 Northwestern hosts #3 North Carolina on The BigTenNetwork at 8 pm Eastern

NCAA Womens Sports video: Northwestern University presents Title IX Trailblazer Kelly Amonte Hiller. April 9, 2012.
http://youtu.be/sRJgOGEPzkQ


Must-see TV tonight: Women's Lacrosse - #1 Northwestern hosts #3 North Carolina in a rematch of last year's NCAA title game won narrowly by the Wildcats 11-10, and The BigTenNetwork is televising it LIVE at 8 p.m. Eastern. DirecTV Channel 610


I watched the entire Johns Hopkins' Men win at #1 UVA a few weeks back to ruin the defending champion Cavalier's home winning streak in Charlottesville and that was a terrific match.
Everything you want in a match of elite teams, including the Blue Jays' never-die spirit to send it into overtime.


Hope tonight's match in Evanston, where I lived for two years, is similar!


Also worth checking out this weekend:
Saturday -Maryland Men at Johns Hopkins at 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208, and on Sunday on BTN at Noon Eastern, #10 Ohio State's Women host #13 Penn State.
-----
http://www.nusports.com/sports/w-lacros/nw-w-lacros-body.html


http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/ 

2011 NCAA Mens Lacrosse Final Four in Baltimore is a case of multiple story narratives colliding head-on; NU-MD rematch for Women should be awesome!

ESPN video: Lacrosse Final Four breakdown

http://youtu.be/MK-pbz_uiDg

The Memorial Day weekend has long been one of my favorite weekend because it combines the sheer excitement and mystery of the Indy 500 and the tough grit of the NCAA D-1 Mens Lacrosse Final Four, where defense almost always trumps showy offense.

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-men/d1

This year is no exception as the four teams playing at M&T Stadium in Baltimore are a clear-cut case of multiple story narratives colliding:

In the first game at 4 p.m., Denver vs. UVA, the new kid-on-the-block with the proven coach vs. the traditional power eager for redemption, while the second game pits Maryland vs. Duke, a return to glory for a traditional power vs. the new king-of-the LAX hill.

(As some of you may recall me having mentioned previously, my middle niece is a freshman at UVA, Charlottesville being one of my favorite cities. I'm rooting for a UVA-Maryland title match on Monday, which'll help make the crowd a big part of the game.)

On Friday night, courtesy of Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, DirecTV Channel 642, I was able to catch some of the D-1 Womens Semi-finals up in Stony Brook, Long Island.

http://www.ncaa.com/championships/lacrosse-women/d1

I missed the first Semi of the night between Maryland and Duke, which saw the returning champion Terps defeat the Blue Devils, and caught the beginning of the second half of the North Carolina-Northwestern match.

In the past, I've caught LIVE or via tape all the Northwestern matches that have been telecast on the BigTenNetwork, but this year, I only saw one or two, so I was not as familiar with this group of Kelly Amonte Hiller-led Wildcats as years past, when Katrina Dowd channeled Isiah Thomas from our 1981 NCAA basketball title run, hustling, driving towards the net and either shooting or making crazy amazing passes.

It was a half largely dominated by the Wildcats, whose Shannon Smith scored with 18 seconds left in the match after UNC tied it twice in the last six minutes.

The win sends the Wildcats up against the Terps for a rematch of their classic title game last year in Towson which saw Northwestern's amazing title run end.

That might've been THE best sporting event I saw all year -by far.

Here's some information about watching the matches this weekend via TV or your nearest computer that may prove helpful for those of you reading this far from the sweltering madness of South Florida.

FYI: ESPN3 is ESPN's LIVE streaming channel, so you can watch the two Mens Sem-finals there on Saturday starting at 4 p.m., and the Championship match on Monday afternoon, too without Cable TV.

----------

Women's Final

Sunday May 29th Division I Women's Lacrosse Final - Maryland (1) vs. Northwestern (2)

to be televised LIVE at 4 p.m. Eastern on Mountain West Sports Network (The Mtn.), Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic (Plus) and joined-in-progress on The BigTenNetwork and streaming at www.NCAA.com

--------

Mens National Semi-finals

Saturday May 28th 2011 Division I Men's Lacrosse Semifinal #1 - Denver (6) vs. Virginia (7)

to be televised LIVE at 4 p.m Eastern on ESPN2 /ESPN3.com.

Semi-final # 2 - Maryland vs. Duke (5), on the same channels around 6:30 p.m.

Mens title game on Monday May 30th at 3:30 p.m. on the same two channels.

I especially encourage you to take a moment and read the following columns about the growth of this great sport, NOT that you'd know this living in South Florida, where the University of Miami has neither a Mens or Womens D-1 lacrosse team despite having so many students from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, or even a D-1 Field Hockey team, which is why the U-M is such an unappealing school for smart and talented women athletes.

It's simply NOT competitive nationally, let alone, within the ACC.

While the U-M dithers, the University of Michigan announced on Wednesday the elevation of Men's and Women's lacrosse to D-1 status.

The Washington Post

2011 NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinals showcase growth of sport

By Christian Swezey

Published: May 27, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/2011-ncaa-mens-lacrosse-semifinals-showcase-regional-growth-of-sport/2011/05/27/AG62gpCH_story.html

New York Times

Observing a Lacrosse Pioneer, McPhee Style

By George Vecsey

May 26, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/sports/mcphee-trains-his-lens-on-tierney-a-lacrosse-pioneer.html

New York Times

Denver Crosses Lacrosse’s Great Divide

By Adam Himmelsbach

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/sports/denver-crosses-lacrosses-great-divide.html

Baltimore Sun

Faceoff lacrosse blog - http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/lacrosse/blog/

Q&A with ESPN's Paul Carcaterra

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/lacrosse/blog/2011/05/qa_with_espns_paul_carcaterra_9.html

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Desire is there for U.Va. lacrosse team

By Michael Phillips

May 28, 2011

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/2011/may/28/tdsport01-desire-is-there-for-uva-lacrosse-team-ar-1070117/

Crack Baby Athletic Association
Tags: SOUTH
PARKEric Cartman,Kyle Broflovski,more...

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/387407/stu-dent-ath-o-leets

Big East & Ivy League Women's Lacrosse championships airing on TV Sat. & Sun.; D-1 Men's & Women's NCAA selection show on Sunday night

The Big East & Ivy League Women's Lacrosse championships are airing on Saturday & Sunday on CBS Sports Network -DirecTV Channel 613.
http://www.cbscollegesports.com/

Last night in Washington, D.C., Notre Dame upset top-seed and host Georgetown 15-12.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/sports/collegesports/notredame/sbt-notre-dame-womens-lacrosse-nd-women-upset-hoyas-20110506,0,4117237.story while Loyola hung on to defeat Syracuse 12-11.
http://www.nunesmagician.com/2011/5/6/2157182/syracuse-lacrosse-womens-loyola-mens-st-johns-big-east-tournament-seniors

The Big East championship airs LIVE at 1 p.m. Saturday from Georgetown University.
Notre Dame vs. Loyola.
Repeats at 5:30 p.m., 12:30 a.m., 11 am Sunday morning

The Ivy League Semifinals are tonight at Franklin Field, Philadelphia.
Princeton vs. Penn and Dartmouth vs. Harvard

The Ivy League championship airs LIVE 1 p.m. Sunday at Franklin Field, Philadelphia
http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/wlax/2010-11/releases/Ivy_League_Tournament_Preview
Repeats at 5:30 p.m., 2 am Monday morning

In the past few years, as I've watched things, Penn has always been 'wicked' tough and and fights for 60 minutes -unlike the sad-sack Miami Dolphins!.

A few minutes from Penn head coach Karin Brower Corbett's TV show from May 3rd:
http://www.pennathletics.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?&db_oem_id=1700&id=771115&DB_MENU_ID=&SPSID=&SPID=&DB_OEM_ID=1700

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The Division 1 Men's and Women's NCAA selection shows air Sunday night

At 7:30 p.m. you can watch the Division I Women's Lacrosse Selection announcement of the 16 teams at NCAA.com
Championship weekend will be at Stony Brook University, Long Island, May 27 & 29. http://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-women/d1

At 9:00 p.m., ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208, airs the Division I Men's Lacrosse Selection announcements of the 16 participating teams.
Championship weekend will be at M&T Stadium in Baltimore, May 28 and 30.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-men/d1

See also: Baltimore Sun's Lacrosse homepage, the best newspaper website for college lacrosse in the country:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/

Baltimore Sun's lacrosse blog:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/lacrosse/blog/

Baltimore Sun's lacrosse forums:
http://talk.baltimoresun.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

Tonight at 8 pm, ESPNU will be airing the Notre Dame at North Carolina Men's match at Chapel Hill.