Bulldogs Getting Ready for 2012 Season

From Bulldogs Lacrosse website:

Duluth, MN -- After finishing the 2011 regular season with a 7-8 record (4-1 in the UMLC conference) and winning their 14th UMLC title, making their 10th appearance in the MLCA tournament, the University of Minnesota-Duluth men's lacrosse team will take it to the road once again for another highly competitive season.

The 2012 Bulldog schedule includes five UMLC in-conference match-ups and seven out of state non-conference teams. The out of conference game matches the Bulldogs against seven teams who also took part in the 2011 national tournament. In the preseaon rankings, the Bulldogs are currently ranked at #15.

"This schedule is a high-level schedule. Not only will we get to see some great out of conference competition, but we are also looking forward to another season of great UMLC lacrosse," said the Bulldogs Head Coach Frank Clark.

The University of Minnesota Duluth opens their regular season with UMLC conference match-ups before heading west to California. The season officially starts on February 18th against Marquette University at Vandais Sports Center and taking on Iowa State Univeristy on February 19th.

The following weekend on February 25th, the Bulldogs will face off against the Unversity of Minnesota. In 2011, the teams met twice. It was a close match-up in last year's regular season game with the Bulldogs losing 8-7 in overtime to the Gophers. The Bulldogs returned the favor with a decisive 11-6 victory in the UMLC Championship game.

The Bulldogs will make a repeat trip to the Husky Dome against St. Cloud State University on March 3rd. In the 2011 season, the Bulldogs beat the Huskies 24-4.

Next, the Bulldogs find themselves on the road to California for three matches starting on March 10th. First, they'll play against Cal Poly (#7), followed by Chapman University (#3), and then University of California Santa Barbara (#12).

Matt Madden, Sr. Midfielder

March 17 will pit the Bulldogs against defending National Champion Bringham Young University (#1) for what is to be an intense rematch after the 2011 season where the Bulldogs lost to BYU in Provo 11-10.

Their travels will continue on in March when the Bulldogs find themselves in Arizona to match up against Arizona State University (#2) on March 23, and then University of Colorado (#11) on March 25th.

Coach Clark commented "March will no doubt be a challenge, but one we are looking forward to."

On April 1st, the Bulldogs will be back in Minnesota, but this time in the Twin Cities, as they face off against Mankato State University.

The Bulldogs will round off their regular season with a home game in Duluth, Minn., on home turf against the University of Illinois on April 15th.