The NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Final Four match ups begin at 4PM ET on Saturday, May 29 in Baltimore. The first game will be the University of Virginia Cavaliers and the Duke Blue Devils. The second game which starts at 6:30 ET will be between Cornell Big Red and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. TV coverage is provided by ESPN2.
Lacrosse games are not and have not been consistent wagering prospects in sports books, but after last season’s popularity amongst bettors during the NCAA Men’s Final Four, the Wynn sports book decided to take advantage of yet another niche in Las Vegas sports betting.
Greg Gorla, an administrative operator at the Wynn, persuaded John Avello, the director of race and sports at the Wynn, to post lines for last year’s NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Final Four. There was enough interest in these lines at the Wynn’s book to post weekend lines during this year’s regular season.
Schools like Cornell and Johns Hopkins especially which aren’t known for being on the boards at Las Vegas sports books have lit up a small portion of the book at the Wynn this month. Lacrosse is gaining popularity in the sports betting world among sharps and recreational bettors alike.
With eight teams left in the quarter finals last Friday the Wynn had the following odds posted:
Virginia 9/5
North Carolina 7/2
Duke 4/1
Maryland 9/2
Cornell 6/1
Notre Dame 14/1
Army 15/1
Stony Brook 22/1
Virginia squeaked by Stony Brook 10-9. The big underdogs played up to their competition, yet Virginia must have still been shaken up by the May third death of Yeardly Love, a member of the woman’s lacrosse team.
Fifth seeded Duke knocked Johns Hopkins out of the tournament last week winning 17-9. Duke has regularly been a competitor in NCAA lacrosse finals. In 2007 they played Cornell in the semifinals and came away with a 12-11 victory. They could match up against Cornell for the championship this year.
Army upset second seeded Syracuse 9-8 in the first round. The game ended in double overtime. The Sunday night game came to an end when Army’s Devin Lynch scored with 5.7 seconds left. This was Syracuse’s second loss ever at home in an NCAA lacrosse tournament game. The Orange finished the regular season 13-1 and were coming off back to back men’s lacrosse championship titles.
Cornell then ran over Army 14-5. Big Red’s Ryan Hurley had four goals and an assist and his teammate Rob Pannell had two goals and two assists.
The Big Red play Notre Dame who beat sixth seeded Princeton at home and took out third seeded Maryland 7-5 in the semifinals.
Duke and Cornell are the favorites in this year’s NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Final Four. A Duke – Cornell match up will attract over 50,000 fans on Memorial Day weekend and much betting action.
