(Photo by Bob White)

by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Paul Jepsen had one eye on the warmups and one eye on the parking lot as his Stanford squad prepared to take on Sonoma State in the first round of the WCLL tournament last Saturday.

Jepsen was distracted because his starting goalie, Sutton Yazzolino, hadn’t arrived.

With the WCLL postseason schedule unannounced, Yazzolino had committed to performing his physical testing for the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the Army’s Fort Ligget on that Saturday morning.

Usually not a big deal with a 3 p.m. game time, but Fort Ligget isn’t exactly local.

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Located south of the Big Sur and a hard four-hours from Sonoma’s field in Novato, the timing would have to be exquisite for the Portland, Ore., native to find his familiar spot in the Cardinal net.

Hence, Jepsen’s angst when the teams were about to lineup for the pregame goalie handshake and Yazzolino was nowhere to be found. So the Stanford coach utilized his last hope of getting his three-year starter in the net.

He burned a timeout.

As the officials looked at Jepsen quizzically, Yazzolino’s car peeled into the parking lot.

“He pulled up next to the field at 3:05, parked illegally, grabbed his gear and ran out toward the field in his Army fatigues,” said Jepsen.

It was a minor miracle.

What D-I conference tournament will have the Game of the Week for the period ending April 27? #mcla24
— MCLA (@MCLA) April 22, 2024

Yazzolino had to wait two hours at Fort Liggett for a bus to take him to his car off-base. Once in his ride, he had to make his way north through some of the most congested traffic areas in the country.

But there he was, sprinting at his teammates in his full combat uniform as the timeout clock ran down.

“It took him a minute to throw his gear on,” Jepsen said. “He then ran directly to center field, bumped fists with the Sonoma goalie and jumped in cage. No warm up.”

Stanford was the fifth-seed in the conference playoff while Sonoma was fourth after beating the Cardinal in the season opener, 10-8 – a game in which Yazzolino made 18 saves.

Saturday’s action was a hotly contested. Sonoma led 6-4 at the half, but a five-goal third quarter put the Cardinal up, 9-7. The Seawolves responded, tying the affair and forcing overtime. Yazzolino’s 16 saves were pivotal in sending the contest to free lacrosse.

The first overtime was fruitless. Nothing in the second overtime, either. Onto a third overtime, where Yazzolino had pushed his save total to 21.

After starting his day four hours away doing physical testing – featuring running, sit-ups, push-ups and other exercises mandated by Army training – followed by working between the pipes for another 71 game minutes, Sonoma finally ended Yazzolino’s day.

“We eventually lost the game with one minute left in [triple] OT, but Sutton was outstanding,” Jepsen said. “I don't think I've witnessed more of a blue-collar performance in my career.”

What D-II conference tournament will have the Game of the Week for the period ending April 27? #mcla24
— MCLA (@MCLA) April 22, 2024

Yazzolino could have told Jepsen, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be able to make it.’

No problem. Understandable. The coach would find another solution.

But Yazzolino didn’t.

He knew there were 16 other guys on his team that needed him and he wasn’t about to let them down. He had been with his brothers since February, finding field space, raising funds, traveling together and having a great time.

He wasn’t going to miss that game.

Outsiders love to say, “It’s just club lacrosse.” Tell that to Sutton Yazzolino.

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GAMES I’M FOLLOWING

ALC Tournament
Because of Virginia Tech losing to Tennessee to end the regular season, we’re going to get the third-ranked Hokies against No. 6 Liberty in the semifinals. This is not insignificant as one of the teams is going to get bounced ‘early’ in their tournament. That will impact seeding for nationals. It’s easy to discount Tennessee or West Virginia in this playoff, but do so at your peril. They are in Lynchburg for a reason.

There’s a very real possibility D-II could send three squads to nationals, and even Appalachian State is looking frisky. The Mountaineers lost to Charlotte by a goal earlier this month and the 49ers are just 4-3 in their last seven games. Wake and Coastal looks like a toss-up in the other semifinal, so this should be an entertaining bracket.

CLC Tournament
All eyes are on Northeastern in D-I because conventional wisdom says the Huskies need to raise the conference hardware to stay in the at-large hunt. With no automatic qualifier, a misstep at this point in the season could be severe. Northeastern is obviously the favorites.

After beating Bridgewater State by 12 in the regular season, D-II appears to be the Rhode Island Invitational. Bridgewater is still in the nationals discussion, but they’d need to at least make the finals to keep any dreams alive. They beat Maine during the regular season, 9-3, so odds are decent of creating a URI rematch.

LSA Tournament
Of the 13 teams on Texas’ undefeated schedule, it’s actually Texas Christian that has played the Longhorns the toughest this season and the Frogs are a potential semifinal opponent. Granted, that game was on Feb. 4 and TCU has to get past Oklahoma, which will have the Horned Frogs former coach, Mark Purcell, stalking the sidelines. That’s a spicy storyline. The other side of the bracket is like a box of chocolates, so UT’s heavy lifting might be done by Saturday evening.

The WCLL Announces Division II All-Conference | https://t.co/TZaLB6oSwH #mcla24 pic.twitter.com/Hs6gVLZy80
— MCLA (@MCLA) April 25, 2024

You will be hard-pressed to find a D-II team that has played a harder schedule than Missouri State. As such, the Bears won’t see a team in Melissa that can give them something they haven’t already seen. Tulane probably has the best shot, but it would be a Miracle on Grass-type upset.

PNCLL Tournament
Both Oregon and Boise State played Simon Fraser tough enough during the regular season to ensure this can’t be considered a Red Leafs formality, but Fraser is certainly a heavy favorite in D-I. PNCLL-II appears to go through Northwest Nazarene as Keaton Bean has the Nighthawks on a tear. Montana enjoys home field advantage, but the tilt against the College of Idaho will just be the fourth game in Washington Grizzly Stadium this spring.

RMLC Tournament
A quick, two-game homestand and Brigham Young can start scouting Michigan State. There’s the old adage that it’s difficult to beat a good team twice, and the rest of the RMLC-I field is certainly good, but are any of them really worrisome to the Cougars? The only two teams on the BYU schedule to stay within two goals is Liberty and Utah Valley, so the possibility exists, I suppose.

The shine has come off the RMLC D-II tourney after Utah State was ruled ineligible for nationals because the league would be legitimately flirting with three teams in Texas. As such, we’ll still likely get the Game of the Weekend when No. 1 Air Force battles No. 5 Montana State in the finals. Those two teams have been eyeballing each other all season, and it would be fitting that they put on a show to end the tournament.

SLC Tournament
There’s plenty on the line in the first round, even if they are rematches from last weekend. If the winner of the San Diego State-Chapman game goes on to win the tournament – as they would be favored to do, rankings-wise – they are looking at a Top 4 seed at nationals. Arizona State is firmly on the bubble and needs to get to at least the finals by beating Arizona. Meanwhile, the Wildcats need to shoot the moon to get to Round Rock, so they’ll be emptying out the gas tank this weekend.

Will SLC-II run back the San Marcos-UCSD title game for the third straight year? Definitely a possibility. Northern Arizona will give the Tritons all they can handle, so Albert Man’s troops need to making sure they aren’t looking ahead. Loyola Marymount would need a monumental effort to topple the Cougars.

WCLL Tournament
Is WCLL-I a two-bid league? If UC Santa Barbara gets knocked off this weekend, it definitely will be, but if the Gauchos win out, it will be an uncomfortable wait on Sunday evening. California would seem to have the strongest resume other than UCSB considering the win over Georgia Tech, but they also have a loss to Cal Poly. If the Mustangs tame the Bears again on Saturday, that might be a death blow for multi-bid hopes. Sonoma needs the AQ.

With no automatic qualifier and no hopes of an at-large, this is the WCLL-II’s Super Bowl. If you want to look on the bright side, there will only be two Division II teams raising a trophy after its last game this spring, and the WCLL champ will be one of them. UC Santa Cruz is in quality form right now, so the Slugs are the favorites, but the other three can’t be dismissed.

https://t.co/U91iIRP9Ol

If anyone’s in DFW checkout the big Lax Tournament in Melissa. Aggies are gnna make a charge! Allen’s own Ryan Squire! pic.twitter.com/IHOAF9LN29
— Michael Vick (@MichaelVick) April 24, 2024

SLIDES & RIDES

- If you’re looking to find out the current state of the brackets for the various MCLA tournaments, please utilize our conference tournament clearinghouse HERE.

- The schedules for Friday and Saturday are available now, but the RMLC championships games on Saturday still have to populate after the semifinals. The remaining 12 championship games will fill in for Sunday after the Saturday semis.

- The 16-team fields in both Division I and II for the 2024 MCLA National Championships presented by New Balance will be released on Sunday evening. Check back at MCLA.us or on our socials for the announcements.

- Congrats to Justin Martin of Kennesaw State. The SELC announced its Division II all-conference teams and Martin not only picked up second team all-SELC honors at defense, but also grabbed third team all-conference at long-stick middie. Impressive...congrats to UC San Diego's Alex Franz for cracking the career 100-goal mark...keep an eye out for all-conference teams. A lot will be rolling out in the next week.