As the final horn sounded, the second-ranked Michigan lacrosse team rushed the field, throwing their gloves in the air with reckless abandon. The Wolverines won their third consecutive Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association Championship and added to their 31-game CCLA win streak.

Michigan received a bye in the first round as the tournament"s number one seed. After defeating in-state rival Michigan State in the semifinals 13-4, Michigan moved on to defeat Marquette in the finals, 8-4.

Michigan knew it would have a game on its hands, having narrowly defeated Marquette earlier this season, 13-10.

"We had seen them once already this year so I really wasn"t that surprised this time with how they played," Michigan head coach John Paul said. "We have kind of been waiting for this, we haven"t had a lot of competition in conference this year."

Marquette got off to a strong start, scoring first. This acted as a wake-up call for Michigan, which scored the next six goals, putting the Wolverines up 6-1 before trading goals prior to the half. Receiving strong play from attacker Kevin Chan and midfielder Ben Herbst who both scored two goals, Michigan was able to play conservatively for the rest of the game.

Using ball control and a passive offense, Michigan kept the ball out of Marquette"s hands the rest of the game and played strong defense when Marquette did have the ball. Marquette would just score two more goals, not enough to overcome the six-goal deficit.

"This was a perfect way to finish the year for us," Paul said. "We didn"t play the way we wanted, but we played a team that pushed us, that is something we needed right now."

It is needed because despite a 13-4 victory over Michigan State, Michigan struggled and played sloppily, getting off to a slow start and making several fundamental errors. Also, Michigan has not topped a ranked opponent since playing No. 3 BYU three weeks ago.

Paul attributed the sub-par play to two weeks of finals that many players have been focusing on. But with school over, the team is now completely focused on lacrosse.

With the Intercollegiate Associates 2001 National Championships a week away the team will need to regain their focus. Current No. 1 Colorado State lost to BYU in their conference tournament, leaving the Wolverines poised to take the top ranking.