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Men's Lacrosse Update: MLL Playoffs, 2012 Draft
August 15, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse
Another dominant, all-star regular-season. Another late August playing on Championship Weekend.
Ryan Boyle has been here before, and 2011 is no different.
Starting in 2012, it might be Tyler Fiorito's and Chad Wiedmaier's turn, at least according to Quint Kessenich.
Boyle finished third in assists in Major League Lacrosse for the 2011 regular season, and he helped his Boston Cannons team win the league's regular-season title with a 9-3 record. After a weekend off, Boyle will be back on the field for the league playoffs, where his Cannons will take on the Chesapeake Bayhawks in one semifinal, while the Hamilton Nationals will take on the Denver Outlaws in the other.
The semifinals and championship game will be played Aug. 28 and 29 at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis.
The Cannons have never won the MLL title, though Boyle has won three of his own, all with the now-defunct Philadelphia Barrage.
Ryan Boyle has been getting the lacrosse ball to the right shooter in the right spot seemingly forever, and his 18 assists this summer brought his career MLL total to 195, 16 away from the league's career record, held by Connor Gill.
Boyle ranks second all-time at Princeton in assists as well, having totalled 162 before graduating in 2004. The 37th of those assists came in overtime in the 2001 NCAA championship game, giving Princeton its sixth title. Boyle has also won two World Championships with the U.S. national team.
Unlike his previous six major championships, Boyle will go after the one this weekend with Matt Striebel, who was his teammate on each of the other winners. Striebel had 13 goals and 25 points this summer with the Rochester Rattlers, who did not reach the postseason.
Long Ellis, who graduated this past spring, played with the Long Island Lizards and was mentioned in an Inside Lacrosse story as a player with a strong upside, especially with the coming expansion to Charlotte and Columbus next summer.
Fiorito and Wiedmaier were ranked fourth and sixth in Kessenich's look at the 2012 draft class, and both players were spoken about in glowing terms.
In fact, Kessenich called Fiorito "one of the top eight goalies on the planet right now," while he said Wiedmaier "may be the top cover defender in the nation. This Tiger should be an immediate starter in the MLL and has the proper combination of speed/power in his holds and a nastiness that's necessary to be successful against the big boys."