Could it be we're poised for another national championship at Yale?
 A few weeks after the Bulldogs won the NCAA men's hockey championship the men's lacrosse team is headed to the quarterfinals.

On Saturday, the No. 11 Yale men's lacrosse team rallied from a 5-1 halftime deficit to defeat eighth-seeded Penn State 10-7 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Colin Flaherty scored three goals to pace the Bulldogs, who advance to the quarterfinals next weekend at the University of Maryland. Yale plays the winner of Sunday night's Syracuse-Bryant game.
It was Yale's first NCAA Tournament victory since a 9-3 win over Navy in 1992.
The Bulldogs (12-4) outscored Penn State (12-5) 9-2 in the second half.

NCAA DIVISION I LACROSSE TOURNAMENT
Yale at Penn State
When: Today, 2:30 P.M.
TV: ESPNU
Records: Yale 11-4; Penn State 12-4

Yale celebrates after winning
the Ivy League title last week

Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs are making their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. Yale earned a berth in the field by winning the Ivy League tournament last weekend at Ithaca, N.Y. The Bulldogs defeated Penn (9-6) and Princeton (12-8) in the tourney.Yale is a strong defensive squad having allowed as many as a dozen goals only once this season. Brandon Mangan leads Yale with 35 goals and Conrad Overbeck has 32.
Scouting Penn State: The Nittany Lions earned their first berth in the NCAA tournament since 2005 with an at-large bid after losing in the finals of the CAA tournament 11-10 to Towson. Penn St. appeared in the NCAA tournament in 2003 and 2005, but didn’t make it out of the first round. This season, the Lions turned in the most wins in school history (12), the longest winning streak (10) and their first undefeated conference campaign.
Up next: The winner of Saturday’s game will travel to Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. to face the winner of the Syracuse-Bryant game. SU owns the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament. TJ Sanders has a team-leading 42 goals and Jack Forster has 40.
— Bill Cloutier

This comes from Register staffer Mary Albl

NEW HAVEN — Typical to the type of person he is, Yale’s Dylan Levings wasn’t fond of all the glitz and glamor that resulted from him being named MVP of the Ivy League lacrosse tournament.
“It was cool momentarily, but the pictures and stuff kind of scared me,” Levings said. “I didn’t really like that as much.”
What he did like was hoisting another trophy and a securing a repeat trip to the NCAA tournament for his team.
The Bulldogs (11-4, 4-2 Ivy) defeated Penn 9-6 last Friday and then beat Princeton 12-8 on Sunday for the Ivy League title. They now travel to Penn State (12-4, 6-0 CAA) for an NCAA tournament first-round matchup with the 13th-seeded Nittany Lions at 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU) on Saturday.
Levings, a junior environmental engineering major, is tabbed as an eccentric individual by his team. He may be a little different, but maybe that’s why his role for the Bulldogs fits him. Levings is the team’s faceoff specialist; a position that many aren’t well-versed in, but one that is so critical to the squad’s success.
“He’s always been exceptional,” head coach Andy Shay said of Levings. “We coach him a little bit, but we try not to screw him up too much.”
This past weekend, Levings won 11 of 17 faceoffs against Penn and then put on a clinic against Princeton. He controlled the game from start to finish, winning 19 of 23 faceoffs, including his first 12 of the game. He also finished with 13 groundballs.
“What he did this weekend was almost unheard of,” junior attacker Brandon Mangan said. “He absolutely dominated the tournament and it means a lot for our offense having so many possessions.”
The heart of Levings’ job is to secure ball possession for Yale. He doesn’t score and won’t be the offensive hero in any game. But his job description is the definition of toughness. He fights tooth and nail and goes stick to stick with his opponent for the ball only to pass off to a teammate that sets up the offense.
“It’s a wrestling match and I like the physical contact,” Levings said.
Shay, who recruited Levings specifically for the role, knew exactly what he was getting. Levings, who played high school lacrosse at Plainedge in Massapequa, N.Y., explained when he first started the sport, he was thrust into the role because he was the strongest. His 5-foot-10, 185-pound frame fits the position to a T.
“I’m short, I’m not tall,” Levings said with a laugh. “It’s good in faceoffs. Same thing when you’re playing line in football; low man wins, lower is better. It’s the only position that I think it’s good to be short; short and strong.”
Levings has since immersed himself in the art of faceoffs. He watches film and does individual workouts. His routine doesn’t follow the typical pattern of his teammates.
“I do a lot of stair running,” he said. “A lot of faceoff is strong legs, pushing people off, so I do extra legs workouts. I can only take a faceoff so many times in practice. I just try to stay healthy and work hard.”
Currently he ranks seventh in the nation in faceoff percentage (.607) and is sixth in groundballs per game (7.93). As a team, Yale is fifth in faceoff percentage.
The Bulldogs will be facing a tough task on Saturday, taking on the No. 2-ranked defense in the country. The Nittany Lions are only allowing 7.44 goals a game and goalie Austin Kaut is second in the nation with a .612 save percentage.
Shay knows the little things make all the difference between a win and loss and advancing to the next round.
“If it’s a close game, then every little possession counts,” Levings said. “We try and out-groundball every team we play. I like to go out there and say it doesn’t matter and we win by 15, but I try to play like we always need every possession.”

Yale broke a 6-6 tie with five straight goals in the third quarter to defeat Princeton 12-8 in the Ivy League men’s lacrosse tournament championship game at Ithaca, N.Y., on Sunday.

Yale celebrates its second
straight Ivy League championship.

The Bulldogs (11-4) defeated the Tigers in the title game for the second straight year and earned the automatic bid into the NCAA championship field of 16.

The Bulldogs will play at No. 8 seed Penn State in the first round of the NCAA on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Nine different Bulldogs scored, including two goals each by Conrad Oberbeck, Brandon Mangan and Kirby Zdrill. Eric Natale recorded 10 saves, eight in the second half.
Tom Schreiber had four points for the Tigers on two goals and two assists.
Yale’s Dylan Levings was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He was dominant on faceoffs on Sunday, winning 19 or 23.
Princeton (9-6) scored the first two goals before Yale regrouped and reeled off six straight by six different players. The Bulldogs led 6-3 at the half. After Princeton opened the second half with three goals to tie the game, Yale came back with five in row, including two goals from Oberbeck.
Oberbeck, Peter Johnson, Natale and Michael McCormack joined Levings on the All-Ivy tournament team.
Yale is the first school to win a pair of Ivy League postseason championships.

Matt Gibson '12, a former Yale All-American, has been named 2012 Cascade Major League Lacrosse Rookie of the Year. The Long Island Lizards attackman earned the honor based on votes submitted by the head coaches and general manager of each of the league's eight teams.

"It's a big honor because there are a lot of good players that are rookies and my goal will be to not think too much about it before the playoffs and to focus on the team, but I know I will enjoy this after the playoffs," said Gibson.
The MLL Championship Weekend presented by Warrior will be held on August 25-26 at Harvard Stadium. The Lizards face top-seeded Denver in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. before No. 2 Chesapeake plays defending MLL champion Boston at approximately 4 p.m. The two semi-final winners will play in the championship game on Sunday, August 26 at 3 p.m.

"The coaching staff has been really supportive of this year's rookies and the transition [from the collegiate level] has been great thanks to the guys I've been working with," Gibson said.
The Lizards' third-leading scorer, Gibson led all MLL rookies with 33 points by scoring 18 goals with 15 assists. He tallied a point in 10 of 12 games this season, including back-to-back five-point outings against Charlotte and Ohio to begin his career.
A two-time selection as the Cascade MLL Rookie of the Week, Gibson earned the award after scoring a goal with four assists in his professional debut, a 10-9 victory over Charlotte on May 19. He also earned the honor on June 25 after scoring three goals with an assist in the Lizards' 14-8 victory over the Denver Outlaws.
The former Bulldog also had a three-goal effort against Ohio on June 16 and scored two goals with two assists in a win against the Hounds on July 28.
"The MLL Rookie of the Year is always a huge source of pride for Cascade Lacrosse," said Cascade Director of Sales and Marketing Tim Ellsworth. "As these players step from the collegiate platform to the professional stage they are emerging as heroes and role models for tomorrow's players. We congratulate Matt Gibson on displaying both of these in his debut season."

Yale had its long winning streak come to an end in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.

Yale's Ryan McCarthy

Jim Marlatt scored three goals and added two assists as No. 4-seed Notre Dame defeated Yale, 13-7, in the first round of the NCAA lacrosse championship at South Bend, Ind.

Notre Dame (12-2), which had nine different players score, advances to play defending champion Virginia on Sunday in Philadelphia. Yale, which had won nine straight games, ended its season at 11-5.

The Irish scored the first four goals from four different players in the first 8:04 before Yale responded, scoring four of the next five goals. Notre Dame’s Sean Rogers snaked home a key shot with seven seconds to go to set the halftime score at 6-4. Yale led in shots at intermission, 15-12.

The Irish took total control in the third period. After Ryan Foley scored, Marlatt scored twice in 1:37, and Will Corrigan added another as Notre Dame established a 10-5 edge heading into the last quarter.

In addition to Marlatt’s hat trick, the Irish had two goals apiece from Rogers and Conor Doyle. Daron Dempster led Yale with four, all assisted by Matt Gibson.

MEN’S LACROSSE GAMEDAY


IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
No. 3 Yale vs. No. 1 Princeton
When: Sunday at noon
Where: Princeton, N.J.
TV: ESPNU
Records: Yale (10-4); Princeton (11-3)
At stake: NCAA Tournament berth
What to look for: Yale avenged an early-season loss to Cornell to earn a berth in the final. The Bulldogs, ranked 14th in the nation, have won eight straight. They got eight goals from Deron Dempster and eight assists from Matt Gibson in Friday’s 14-10 win over the Big Red. Top-seed Princeton (ranked 9th) edged Brown 9-6 on Friday. The last time these two teams met it was the longest game in the history of both schools. Princeton won the game in the fifth overtime 10-9.

Yale men’s squash coach Dave Talbott said his team’s monumental win over Trinity on Wednesday was just as big for the sport as it was for his team.
The Bulldogs beat the nation’s top-ranked Bantams 5-4, ending the longest active win streak in intercollegiate varsity sports. Trinity, the 13-time defending national champion, had won 252 straight matches before falling at Brady Squash Center.

“It’s been really cool for the kids, but it’s great for the sport,” Talbott said. “All the coverage has been really exciting for the kids, but what it does for the sport is even more important.
“It brings attention to a sport that’s never been seen before. Our win has been on CNN and ESPN and in publications like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the New Haven Register. It’s been off the charts.”
Yale captain Ryan Dowd, a senior from Boston who won his match in the contest, has quickly tried to refocus his team for the rest of the season.
Dowd beat Trinity’s Reinhold Hergeth and Yale also got victories from Robert Berner, Hywel Robinson and sophomore Neil Martin. Senior John Roberts closed it out with a dramatic five-set win over Johan Detter.
But now it’s back to reality for the second-ranked Bulldogs, who are 7-0 and don’t play another match at home until Feb. 12 against Harvard. Yale played No. 10 Western Ontario on Friday and will battle powerhouse Rochester, ranked fourth in the country, today in what is expected to be another intense match.
“It’s still crazy,” Dowd said on Friday. “We’re all still getting calls and texts and we know we have a big match (today). We have a big target on our backs for the rest of the season. To beat (Rochester) and then get the No. 1 ranking when they come out on Monday will validate the win.
“We’d been close against Trinity recently and they lost some players, but so did we. We felt that we could compete against them in every individual spot.”
Talbott, who’s been coaching at Yale since 1983 and led the men’s team to national titles and the women’s team to the 2011 crown, said the sport itself is dominated internationally. Continued...
“In the past 10 years I think Trinity has only had one American player,” he said. “Squash is big in Egypt and Pakistan and, of course, there’s great players in England. In America it’s basically a prep school sport for the entitled. Overseas it’s a professional sport.
“The players don’t make as much money as they do in tennis, but they make a good living at it.”
The Bulldogs have a 14-player roster consisting of two state players and eight international students.
“We lost some depth from last year’s team and Trinity had also lost some top players,” Talbott said. “But Trinity also brought in three new players in January, so there was some unknown aspects about their team.”
The players themselves are squash junkies and, after this weekend’s matches, they plan on heading to New York’s Grand Central Station to watch the Tournament of Champions — a world-class event which will be played on portable four-glass wall courts set up right in the station’s depot.
While much of the sport is unique, the intensity is sometimes ferocious. After Trinity beat Yale 5-4 last season in the CSA Team National Championships, a Bantam player screamed right in the face of Yale player following the match’s final point. Dowd said that was tough to swallow.
The Bulldogs got the last word on Wednesday.