Elite Division – The only Florida team to qualify this year for the Elite division was the Tampa Tribe.  They lost in the first round of the play-offs after earning the 10th seed. The division was eventually won by powerhouse Team Long Island over SweetLax.  FCA, always in the mix at this tournament finished in third place. Rising Stars – Florida featured Florida Elite (3rd seed) Tampa Bay Fire (7th seed), and the Tampa Tribe (13th seed) in this division.  Charlotte based Road Warriors featured several Florida players and they took the 6th seed. The Tribe and Road Warriors went out in the first round of the play-offs and the rest of our Florida teams lasted until the round of eight.  Pennsylvania’s Mesa Fresh ended up defeating FCA for the Championship with Team Total Michigan taking third. U-15 With 23 teams the U-15 division was deep.  Florida Elite took the 5th seed and the Stampede Lacrosse Club took the 12th.  The two teams met in the second round and Elite eliminated the Stampede in the round of 16.  Elite went onto to finish in 7th place. Palm Beach Storm went into the playoffs seeded 3rd.  The held off the Long Island Nemesis and were then eliminated by Six Nations in the round of 8.   They then lost to the Florida Elite in the consolation bracket to finish the tournament tied for 8th. Six Nations went onto win the division by beating South Charlotte in the finals.  The Road Warriors took third. U-13 The U-13 group had 23 teams qualify.  This was a hugely competitive group.  The Express Tenacious Turtles out of Long Island went through the tournament like a hot knife through butter defeating the Denver Elite club  in the championship game 11-2.  They did not have a close game throughout the tournament. Florida’s Stampede LC took the 17th seed into the play offs eliminating the 16th seeded Mad Cats in the first round.  Unfortuneatley they ran into the turtles in the next round and lost 16-0.   The Palm Beach Storm took the 10th seed and made it to the round of 8 before they faced the Tenacious Turtles dropping the game 12-0.  They eliminated Bel-Air and the Baltimore Breakers in the first two rounds.  The Tribe earned the 22nd seed but was unable to make it through the first round dropping the game to a solid Grand River Ironmen team. U-11 Florida’s best showing came from our U-11 teams.  Both the Xtreme and Palm Beach Storm made it to the semi-finals with Xtreme besting the Storm in a SoFlo match up.  Xtreme won the game and went onto finish second, dropping the championship to the freakishly good Long Island Team 91 in the final. PB Storm took third place besting the Philly Freedom in the consolation game. The tournament is a great event.  This is truly a national tournament wit a wide range of talent in the teams who show up.  We had breakfast at the Waffle House (a favorite of FLN) and met a father and son from New Jersey.  They were grabbing a quick bite before heading back to play the final game of the tournament for their team.  They weren’t sure if they were playing for 13th or 15th place,  but they were sure it was the best lacrosse experience they had ever had.