Morning Coffee with FLN on Substack 05032024
Welcome to today’s post! Girls Regional Final Preview today!
Congratulations to Lake Mary’s Caden Harshbarger and American Heritage-Delray’s Caroline Byrd for being named in the 2nd Wave (11 each for 4 waves = 44 total players named for each game) of the New Balance All American teams! The article links are on the FLN website. The games are scheduled for July 27th and will be broadcast on live ESPNU, starting at 5:30pm.
JU Women score the last 4 goals, with Lauren Ellis scoring the game winner with :05 left to send the Dolphins to the ASUN final over Liberty. The Gators defeated Vanderbilt 17-8 to advance to the AAC final.
The JU Men knocked off Robert Morris 17-12 to advance to the ASUN semifinals against Air Force.
St Thomas alum Trace McDonald was named the Peach Belt Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year, and First-Team, and he was joined by Jupiter alum Tyler Douglass on the 1st Team. Way to rep us Kids!
Speaking of Flagler, congratulations to Flagler Men’s Head Coach Brian Duncan, as he was named to the new 2024 NJCAA Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association Hall of Fame! We’ll post that link on FLN today or tomorrow.
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Girls Regional Finals
Region 1 1A: #1 Ponte Vedra (13-7) hosts #2 Episcopal (12-7)
These two teams are very close in their power rankings and SOS, which isn’t always the case. Even their Won/Loss records are in line. They played on March 26th and PV won 15-12 at ESJ. The common opponents saw Ponte Vedra go 6-5 and Episcopal go 5-4. Plant played both on back-to-back days, with them winning by one at home to PV and winning by 2 the next day at ESJ. Each lost comfortably to Lake Highland in early March. Later in the season, they played the teams in their area and had similar results, but as the season came down to the end, PV’s results started to be better.
Ponte Vedra has won their last 6 games, although the Lake Mary away game was a one-goal win. In those 6 games, they scored 108 goals, or 18 per game, giving up 35. Episcopal was tripped up twice, losing the PV game and a solid effort vs Bishop Ireton, a national power. Both teams were impressive in their first-round games.
These two teams are so alike that they even have similar goals for and against. This game should be a beauty and stay close, but I like the home field advantage and the momentum that Ponte Vedra has generated, and I see them taking the narrow victory.