State closes 2017 season with a 13-6 victory over Northeastern

Michigan State defeated Northeastern 13-6 Tuesday, May 9 in a consolation game of the Division 1 MCLA national tournament in Irvine California. Michigan State ends the season with a record of 12-5 after losing to #1 seed Brigham Young 10-8 Monday night. In that game, State outscored BYU 7-1 during a furious second half rally.

"Our performance in the second half against Brigham Young demonstrates that this team is capable of playing some very, very good lacrosse" said Spartan Head Coach Cam Holding. "Our five losses this year were all on the road to nationally ranked, top-20 D1 teams and generally were caused by a poor quarter or two each game. Our challenge for next season is to raise our level of consistent play in these big-time games".

Michigan State's schedule was ranked 18th most difficult in the MCLA D1 this year according to LaxPower. They played three teams in the top 10, another four ranked #11-18 and three other teams (Davenport and Pittsburgh both twice) ranked #25-31. Michigan State also played the #3 team in MCLA D2, Grand Valley State, in 2017. 

LaxPower ranked Michigan State's RPI as 8th most difficult this year in Division 1. The RPI (Ratings Performance Index) takes into account the quality of a team's opponents and also their opponent's opponent in an attempt to standardize win-loss records and provide a more meaningful measure of a team's ranking. The RPI is used heavily by the NCAA for seeding their national tournaments in lacrosse and other sports.

Photo credit: Laura Rice