Tennessee to Host Premier Weekend Event

KNOXVILLE, TN. – When the Atlantic Lacrosse Conference (ALC) decided to go away from their regional format in Division I following the departures of Temple and Pittsburgh, the new round robin style schedule left teams making late changes to their schedules this past summer.  It can be tricky making late changes to an MCLA schedule as agreed to games get moved around and often one can not move without moving others.  These schedules can be like a Jenga tower where one seemingly inconsequential move can bring the whole thing crashing down.  With the ALC schedule adjustments, Tennessee had to scrap a weekend trip to Auburn. The trip to the plains was a return trip that the Volunteers owed the Tigers, but now needed to be pushed to 2027.  Liberty was still looking to lock down their Spring Break plans following the schedule shuffle. 

Liberty and Tennessee ended up settling on this weekend for their now required conference game.  Brigham Young had expressed interest in a trip East and a chance to play two teams that finished in the top ten of the final poll of 2025 was just the right enticement.  Now there were three teams that finished in the top ten in 2025 meeting in Knoxville for what was sure to be a wild weekend of lacrosse.  In an ideal world the weekend would have games with equitable rest, but that is tricky with three teams.  So, the teams set out looking for a fourth team in order to simplify the schedule.  This brought Auburn back into the picture.  With the teams already booked, the Tigers were willing to make another trip to Knoxville.  With the Tigers’ agreement the weekend was set.  All four teams will play three games in four days, but no one is playing three straight days. 

Now that the teams had agreed, the Tennessee leadership lead by President Tommy Gies had to make the necessary arrangements so the event could go off smoothly.  This will be the largest single weekend event that Tennessee has hosted.  In order to use the University facilities the schedule is spread across Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Like most recreation fields, the facilities are booked constantly, so the Volunteers had to work with other clubs and teams as they needed approval in order to use the other teams’ timeslots.  In order to use the space, games will be going on simultaneously on Wednesday and Saturday, which will require more support staff than MCLA teams typically use as simultaneous games are rare outside of postseason tournaments.  Tennessee club president Tommy Gies typically oversees any neutral site games they host in Knoxville, but with simultaneous games he has worked to make sure they have ample staff and they are set up for success in order for the games to go off without a hitch. 

Tennessee has a newly formed Tennessee Club Sports Network that will be streaming a number of the games.  Any games that the network cannot stream will be handled by the Tennessee club using their away game set up so all games should be available for the MCLA community to watch. 

The Volunteers have promoted the event around Knoxville as this is the first event of its kind that the Volunteers have hosted.  The Volunteers are expecting a crowd of youth players as the event has energized the local lacrosse community.    If the event goes smoothly, the expectation is that this sort of event could become the norm in Knoxville potentially turning East Tennessee into  an MCLA hub. 

SCHEDULE OF GAMES

Wednesday 8pm

#6 Tennessee vs #8 Liberty

#2 Brigham Young vs Auburn

Thursday 8pm

#6 Tennessee vs Auburn

Friday 2pm

#2 Brigham Young vs #8 Liberty

Saturday 12pm

#8 Liberty vs Auburn

#6 Tennessee vs #2 BYU