Penn State lacrosse put up a great fight against Duke but ended on a controversial overtime goal in the NCAA semifinals.
Let me be the first to tell you I am in no way an expert on college lacrosse. But I do fancy myself as a top-notch critic of how instant replay is and is not used in sports. And on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I can tell you without any hesitation that Penn State’s lacrosse season came to a close earlier than it should have because of a bad instant replay policy in the NCAA rulebook.
Penn State went toe-to-toe with the no. 1 seed Duke at Lincoln Financial Field, taking the top-seeded Blue Devils and prohibitive favorites to overtime with a 15-15 tie at the end of regulation. Not long into the overtime session, where the first goal scored by either team would determine the victor and clinch a spot in Monday’s national championship game, Duke wrapped around the back of the Penn State net and fired the game-winning shot into the net for the victory.
But instant replay showed that Duke’s Garrett Leadmon actually had a foot on the line of the crease, which should have wiped the goal off the board and allowed the game to continue until the next goal was scored. Unfortunately for Penn State, for some ridiculous reason, this play was not reviewable. The referees bolted off the field and the Duke celebration continued on the field with nothing more than a brief chat between two refs to confirm the goal.
In real-time, you can see how that would have been missed by the refs working the game. But in the year 2023 with the number of cameras available covering almost any sporting event in today’s world, the inability to go to a replay review to confirm this game-deciding play is just bizarre on so many levels.
Maybe Duke would have gone on to win this game anyway. Maybe Penn State should have taken advantage of a few other opportunities, like getting a shot off with a man advantage in the final minutes of the game. Or maybe, just maybe, the NCAA needs to take five minutes out of their offseason schedule and decide that this scenario should never be possible ever again.
It’s an easy fix. It’s a common-sense fix. And that means it is far more likely the NCAA won’t fix it anytime soon.
Sadly, the ridiculous nature of the lack of instant replay in this situation will overshadow the effort by Penn State’s lacrosse program, which was on the verge of a major upset and a first-ever trip to the NCAA championship game. Penn State lacrosse has come on strongly in recent years and it may not be about to fade any time too soon. But on Saturday, it was done no favors by the lack of foresight from the NCAA rules. It’s tough enough going head-to-head with one of the top programs in the sport. It’s even tougher when the NCAA doesn’t have in place sensible instant replay rules.
Duke will take on the winner of the Notre Dame-Virginia semifinal game in Monday afternoon’s national championship game.
