St. John's University Athletics
Jason Miller Announces 2015 Lacrosse Schedule
12/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Dec. 15, 2014
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QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's head lacrosse coach Jason Miller has officially announced the schedule for the 2015 season as the Red Storm will look to navigate through a challenging slate of games and make a return to the BIG EAST Lacrosse Championship. The 2015 schedule features 14 regular season games, including six to be played at DaSilva Memorial Field on the University's Queens campus.
In all, St. John's will face four opponents that participated in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, as well as five teams ranked in last year's end-of-season Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and a total of seven squads that won eight or more games a year ago. The Red Storm's 2015 slate is made up of six home games, seven away contests and one neutral-site encounter. St. John's will play games in seven different states in the upcoming season, including the program's first-ever contests staged in the states of Florida and Wisconsin.
The Red Storm's first nine games of 2015 will all be nonconference contests, including four at DaSilva Memorial Field.
"We've always tried to schedule out of conference as competitive as we can," said Miller. "When you play the likes of Yale, which is as good a team in the Ivy League as there is, as well as schools like Stony Brook, Hofstra and Drexel out of the CAA, Siena out of the MAAC, and a Jacksonville team which I think is pretty good, it shapes up to be a very competitive nonconference schedule."
St. John's regular-season BIG EAST Conference slate will span the final five games of the season.
"I think the BIG EAST is going to be as competitive as it always is," said Miller. "We're 9-9 in the BIG EAST since the conference was formed, and a double-overtime win has gotten us into the tournament and a double-overtime loss has kept us out of the tournament. I don't see the departure of Rutgers changing anything. Providence is much improved, Marquette had a great season last year, Denver should be a top-5 team in the country, and Villanova and Georgetown are always big games for us. It's going to be pretty exciting at the back end of the schedule."
As it was in 2014, one of the highlights of St. John's upcoming season promises to be its clash with former conference foe and national powerhouse Syracuse, as the two Empire State rivals will meet for the second-consecutive year in Kennesaw, Ga., on Saturday, March 7 to headline the second-ever Cobb County Lacrosse Classic. Last year's inaugural event drew a crowd of 5,703 fans to Kennesaw State University's Fifth Third Bank Stadium, as the No. 11/9 Orange claimed a hard-fought 14-8 victory over the No. 19/20 Red Storm. St. John's will be looking for its first-ever victory over Syracuse in 2015, while the Orange look to return to the NCAA Tournament following a first-round exit as a No. 2 seed last season.
"We want to keep Syracuse on our schedule for as long as possible," said Miller. "Any team would do the same if they could. Our game in Atlanta last season was an unbelievable experience for our guys, between the crowd, the venue and the opportunity to play down South. We're excited about the chance to go back in March."
The Red Storm opens its season on Saturday, Feb. 7, when familiar foe and former BIG EAST Conference member Rutgers enters DaSilva Memorial Field for a 1 p.m. contest. St. John's has faced the Scarlet Knights 22 times in its history, more than any other opponent, with Rutgers claiming a home 16-13 victory in last season's clash.
The Red Storm will remain in Queens for its second game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 14, playing host to Long Island rival Stony Brook at 1 p.m. St. John's used a late-game rally to defeat the Seawolves in 2014 to improve to 3-4 in the all-time series.
Saturday, Feb. 21 will see the Red Storm play the first lacrosse game in school-history in the state of Florida, as St. John's takes on Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. The Dolphins are the only Division I lacrosse program in the state of Florida and are coming off a 4-9 campaign that culminated in an appearance in the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Tournament.
The Red Storm will remain on the road on Saturday, Feb. 28 in another non-conference clash at Siena College, before welcoming Ivy League power Yale to DaSilva Memorial Field for a mid-week clash on Tuesday, March 3. The Bulldogs came away with a 10-6 home victory over St. John's last season before ending its 2014 campaign in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament.
Following its high-profile tilt with Syracuse in the Cobb County Lacrosse Classic, the Red Storm will return home to Queens on Saturday, March 14 to host defending Colonial Athletic Association regular season and tournament champion Drexel at 1 p.m. The Dragons dealt St. John's a 16-11 loss last season over spring break before advancing to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.
On Tuesday, March 17, the Red Storm will complete its Long Island duties by traveling to Hempstead, N.Y., to take on local rival Hofstra. St. John's prevailed in overtime in last season's meeting to register its second-consecutive victory over the Pride, a program first.
Staying on the road, the Red Storm will travel to the state of Massachusetts on Saturday, April 4 to play Holy Cross in St. John's final non-conference game of the season. The Red Storm opened 2014 with a 15-13 home victory over the Crusaders and holds a 13-1 record in the all-time series.
St. John's will open BIG EAST Conference play on Saturday, March 28, when Providence enters DaSilva Memorial Field for a 1 p.m. contest. The Red Storm is undefeated in 14 all-time meeting with the Friars, including a 14-7 road victory last season in a rainy, nationally-televised clash on FOX Sports.
Saturday, April 4 will see St. John's travel West to Milwaukee, Wis., to take on Marquette in a noon Eastern Time clash and the program's first-ever game in the state of Wisconsin. The Golden Eagles posted a 4-2 conference mark in their second year in the BIG EAST in 2014, claiming an 11-10 double-overtime victory over the Red Storm at DaSilva Memorial Field.
On Saturday, April 11, the Red Storm will play host to national powerhouse and second-year BIG EAST member Denver. The reigning BIG EAST regular season and tournament champion Pioneers went undefeated in conference play in 2014 amid a 16-3 campaign that ended in a loss to eventual national champion Duke in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. In their first-ever meeting last season, Denver prevailed at home over St. John's, 16-9.
The Red Storm will conclude its 2015 regular-season slate with two conference road games, starting with a meeting with Villanova in Philadelphia, Pa., on April 18. St. John's prevailed in overtime by an 11-10 score line in last season's meeting on Senior Day at DaSilva Memorial Field, before Villanova advanced to the BIG EAST Championship final. The Red Storm will then head to our nation's capital on April 25 to face Georgetown, looking to win two straight over the Hoyas after claiming a 15-7 home victory last season.
The Red Storm will look to make a return to the BIG EAST Championship in 2015, with the semifinals set for Thursday, April 30 and the final to follow on Saturday, May 2, in Villanova, Pa.
Keep up with Red Storm lacrosse all season long at RedStormSports.com and on Twitter by following @StJohnslax and using the hashtag "sjulax."
