Saint John's Lacrosse

Saint John's Lacrosse
Official Blog of the Johnnies

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

5/1 - 5/3 Weekend Preview

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - They say "April showers bring May flowers". Whether that's true or not, Wednesday's rain will bring history during the first week in May up at Saint John's University.

For the first time, Saint John's will play host to the 2009 Upper Midwest Lacrosse League (UMLL) Division II Playoff Final Four.

Saint John's also has the chance to capture their fifth UMLL Division II Championship in the past six years.

The UMLL DII playoff seedings are as follows:

#1 Saint John's University
#2 University of Saint Thomas
#3 Saint Olaf College
#4 North Dakota State University
#5 Minnesota State University - Moorhead
#6 Carleton College

The Johnnies and the Tommies have first round byes and automatically advance to the semifinals.

On Friday, May 1st the quarterfinal games will be played at Husky Stadium on the campus of St. Cloud State University

North Dakota State (#4) will play MSU-Moorhead (#5) at 5:15 p.m (Game B1). The winner of that game will advance to play Saint John's. The other quarterfinal game, Saint Olaf (#3) vs. Carleton (#6) at 7:30 p.m. (Game B2), will determine who plays Saint Thomas.

On Saturday, May 2nd the UMLL Division II Final Four will be held at Clemens Stadium on the campus of Saint John's University.

At noon, #1 Saint John's will play the Game B1 winner (Game B3).
At 3 p.m., #2 Saint Thomas will play the Game B2 winner (Game B4).

On Sunday, May 3rd the UMLL Division II Championship game will take place at 10:45 a.m.

The game will feature the Game B3 winner against the Game B4 winner.

In recent years, Saint John's and Saint Thomas have advanced to play each other in the championship game and it looks like 2009 will be no different.

Saint John's is the defending champion and has won the UMLL Division II Championship in 2004, 2005, 2007 and, most recently, in 2008.

Updates will be posted on this website and if there is another Johnnie/Tommie match-up, be sure you're there to see who takes home the 2009 UMLL Division II Championship and punches their ticket to Denver, Colo. for the 2009 MCLA National Championship Tournament.


PICTURES

Thank you to everyone who has sent me pictures so far this year. I have not been able to post them up on the website until now. Please keep snapping away and send me those pictures! Thank you!

Without further ado, I present to you...


Fall Ball Pictures by Mark Zallek


Saint John's vs. Grand Valley State University Pictures by Lynn Freeman

Saint John's vs. Grand Valley State University Pictures by Steve Sanner

Saint John's vs. Grand Valley State University Pictures by Mark Zallek*

Saint John's vs. University of Saint Thomas Pictures by Steve Sanner

Saint John's vs. St. Olaf College Pictures by Steve Sanner

Saint John's vs. Davenport University Pictures by Steve Sanner

Saint John's vs. University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Pictures by Steve Sanner

Saint John's vs. University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Pictures by Mark Zallek*

* - Requires...
USERNAME: sjulacrosse
PASSWORD: gojohnnies

Again thank you to everyone for the pictures so far. Be sure to join us this weekend up at Saint John's and keep those cameras in action!

The Start of Something Good

For the longest time, we have been talking about the need for a new website. Actions are already in place to give the Johnnies a new, better looking and organized webpage for the 2009-2010 season and beyond.

Home Teams Online is a website that creates homepages for sports teams and leagues of all sports, ages, levels, conferences, etc. The University of St. Thomas revamped its own homepage by switching to a Home Teams Online webpage a few years ago. The College of St. Benedict Girls Lacrosse team also switched to a Home Teams Online webpage and their league, the North Central Women's Lacrosse League, also used Home Teams Online for their homepage.

Although the previous website was free to use and maintain it was also difficult to manage and edit. Saint John's University has since gotten rid of the program that was originally used to create the website, Front Page 2003, on all campus computers. This makes it, again, very hard to edit since I am the only one with a copy of the program on my computer.

Having a Home Teams Online account will greatly benefit the program and give the Saint John's website the extra boost it has needed over previous years.

Unfortunately it does not come cheap. The site will require $95 a year to maintain. However we will get what we pay for. To see all the features we will get click here (we are pursuing the All-Star package).

Currently, the website is running under the basic package (schedule, scores and roster) which will work for now.

To see the current website and get a little preview of what the website will look like click here.

PLEASE let me know if you have any suggestions, comments or concerns regarding the new website!

Thank you! I will post more later!

- Mike Murakami
SJU Class of 2010
Webmaster, and Communications Officer