Rearview: 2026

(Photo by Bob White)

by E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us

ATLANTA-  Well, the season is over.  We are now roughly two weeks removed from the conclusion of the MCLA National Championships Presented By New Balance.  I wanted to do a wrap up piece with some running thoughts on the 2026 season and tournaments to tie a bow on the 2026 season so here we go.

In Division I we had no teams from the West Coast (for the purposes of this analysis we’ll include any state with Pacific coastline)  in the semifinals for the second straight year.  This was only the fifth time that has happened since 1997, but this has occurred three times in the last five seasons (2022, 2025, and 2026).  To develop a real hypothesis as to why this is occurring would take a deeper analysis, but this is something worth noting in my opinion.  I would think this would be something that pollsters might want to keep in mind going into the 2027 as they rank the West Coast teams.  Of the four teams that made it to Richmond from West Coast states (Oregon, California, San Diego State, and UC Santa Barbara) only Oregon was within three goals.  UC Santa Barbara closed the gap late in their game, but never really threatened Clemson.  California has a chance to make a game of it with Tennessee in the second quarter, but the Vols went on a run and broke the game open.  San Diego State was never in contention in their game against South Carolina.  If we include Arizona as a West Coast state, this was only the third time since 1997 that we have not had a West Coast semifinalist and all three of those times were in the last five years.

Both entries from the CLC acquitted themselves well and showed they were perhaps under seeded and deserved more respect than they got throughout the season.  Rhode Island upset Montana in round one and had a lead against Cal State San Marcos in the fourth quarter before the Cougars pulled away late.  Rhode Island only graduates one of their top five scorers so the Rams could make a run next year.  In Division I, Northeastern had the type of season every coach hopes for when they are rebuilding after graduating a strong class.  The Huskies took their lumps early starting 2-4 and losing to two teams that did not make it to Richmond in Chapman and Georgia Tech.  After losing to Virginia Tech on March 14, the Huskies did not lose again until their overtime heartbreaker in the first round against Florida State who eventually made it to the semifinals.  That sort of growth from the beginning of the season to the end is what coaches hope for when they have a young team finding their way.  There were five teams that played in the 2025 tournament that suffered what I would label massive graduation losses- Liberty, Florida, Northeastern, Georgia Tech, and Arizona State.  Only the Huskies made it back in 2026.

Both champions played the long game quite well on their way to their titles.  Brigham Young had a few moments in the regular season where games were closer than expected and then lost by six to Utah Valley in their first meeting.  The Cougars were able to reverse the loss and defeat the Wolverines in the RMLC Tournament.  After playing with fire in a slow start against Michigan State in the first round, the Cougars become a buzzsaw for the next two rounds as they dispatched the two SELC finalists by significant margins.  In the final Virginia Tech took a second half lead, but the Cougars were just too much down the stretch.  Grand Valley State had a scheduling quirk in that they played their first game and then shut down for a month before finishing with a flurry of games.  They lost an early game to Florida Atlantic, which could likely be attributed to the  Lakers still figuring out who they were.  They also lost to St. Thomas in the first meeting between the teams, but then were able to beat the Tommies twice when there were trophies on the line; both conference and national.  I questioned the Lakers approach to their first round game when they clearly valued rest and being fresh later in the week with their approach and they showed that their approach was the right one for them.  These two teams were clearly the best two teams in Richmond.  Brigham Young did it based largely on their offense and dizzying ball movement, while Grand Valley State did it with their defense turning away every opponent they faced in Richmond. 

This season showed that peaking at the right time is crucial.  Our two champions were voted to the top of the poll only once all season and it happened to be the only poll that really matters, the last one.  St. Thomas and Utah Valley sat in the top spots of every poll through the regular season.  However, neither team brought home any hardware in 2026. 

We had three individual performances that landed in the tournament record books in Richmond.  Brogan Rice from College of Idaho set a new Division II tournament record with 28 saves in their quarterfinal win over Air Force.  Logan Aiello of Tennessee and Mason Quick of Brigham Young both joined a logjam of a tie for third place in points in a Division I tournament game with ten points each; Aiello against California and Quick against Florida State. 

Brigham Young tied for second most goals in a Division I tournament game with their 23 goal output against Georgia.  The Cougars also sit in second place for goals in a tournament with 71 across their four games, which puts them into a tie for second place in goals per game with 17.8.

UC San Diego followed the script for an upset perfectly in their game against Montana State.  The 11th seeded Tritons won 70% of the faceoffs and got 19 saves from their goalie en route to upsetting the 6th seeded Bobcats.  Faceoffs and goalie play are a great place to start for upset minded outfits. 

I heard differing opinions on the Division II final being Friday night rather than doing both finals  Saturday.  I did not get the impression that the lack of a rest day affected the gameplay, but the crowd certainly seemed surprisingly subdued for a Friday evening tilt.  I do not know if the split finals will continue or if we will return to both games being Saturday. 

This was the first time I attended the tournament with the intent to cover it rather than coach in it and that was certainly an adjustment.   The scene on Monday is still one of the best spectacles in lacrosse with so much happening in such tight quarters.  The highlight of the week for me was running between three different fields on Tuesday evening as College of Idaho and Air Force played an overtime thriller, Florida State and Tennessee went punch for punch with each other, and Virginia Tech got revenge against South Carolina in overtime and all three games were hitting their dramatic peaks simultaneously. 

The week in Richmond was a fitting cap to the season as we had close games and dominant performances throughout the brackets.  There will be some final news and notes from the season as we close the book on 2026 over the next few weeks and shift into Summer Mode and begin preparing to do it all again in 2027.  Fall practice is going to be here before we know it.