Road to Foxborough: Final teams selected for Men’s Division I Lacrosse tournament
By Carly Regehr
The Division I Men’s Lacrosse tournament will begin on May 10 and finish on May 29 at Gillette Stadium.
The North Carolina Tar Heels may not win back-to-back men’s college lacrosse tournaments. The Tar Heels, who would end up defeating Maryland last year in overtime (14-13), have a very different – and deep – pool of talent to overcome in this year’s tournament. If North Carolina does wants to compete and win their second consecutive title, then they will have to depend on last year’s most outstanding player, Chris Cloutier (4 goals during tournament – most in NCAA history), and Luke Goldstock.
Throughout this year’s regular season, North Carolina would hog a lot of headline space. At one point, they slipped in the rankings – from No. 9 to No. 14 to No. 18. Luckily, they redeemed themselves in the second-half of the season, capping off the Top 10 heading into the tournament. But there’s still little to gawk over because of their resume, of which includes only three noteworthy wins (Syracuse, Notre Dame, Denver), despite their ACC Championship victory over Notre Dame.
And though some teams were on the wait list, like Notre Dame, to be called into the tournament, the fate of several universities relied on conference tournaments. Based on those game results, the following teams already punched their ticket into the tournament before the selection show:
Automatic Qualifiers by Conference
Albany (America East)
Marquette (Big East)
North Carolina (ACC)
Maryland (Big Ten)
Towson (CAA)
Yale (Ivy League)
Monmouth (MAAC)
Bryant (NEC)
Loyola (Patriot League)
Air Force (Southern)
With the release of the teams picked to participate in this year’s lacrosse championship, seventeen teams will have a chance to push the restart button.
In terms of scheduling, the tournament will start on May 10 when Bryant and Monmouth square off in a play-in game, which determines first-round eligibility. Following the completion of that game, the first round, composed of sixteen teams, will get underway three days later. Those 16 teams will go into combat against one another. From there, the championship run will be narrowed down to eight teams, which will be determined during the quarterfinals (May 20-21).
In the meantime, here are the seeds and the scheduled contests. (Note: first round begins Saturday, May 13. Tune into ESPNU for all games. All times are Eastern.)
No. 1 Maryland vs. Bryant/Monmouth (Sunday at 2:30)
No. 2 Syracuse vs. Yale (Sunday at 7:30)
No. 3 Ohio State vs. Loyola (Sunday at 5:00)
No. 4 Notre Dame vs. Marquette (Sunday at noon)
No. 5 Denver vs. Air Force (Saturday at 5:00)
No. 6 Johns Hopkins vs. Duke (Saturday at 2:30)
No. 7 Penn State vs. Towson (Saturday at noon)
No. 8 Albany vs. North Carolina (Saturday at 7:30)
The most notable match-up of the opening round is between Albany and North Carolina, and it could very well result in a butterfly effect for the rest of the table. Both teams were predicted as heavy favorites heading into Foxborough, but fate had another agenda. It will also feature two of the best attackmen of Division I lacrosse, UNC’s Luke Goldstock and Albany’s Connor Fields.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins has some homework. Three years ago, Duke had no problem taking care of Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals. Myles Jones, a former standout at Duke, scored three goals and recorded four assists. Though that’s the past, the terror that Johns Hopkins will have to endure isn’t much different going into this year’s postseason. Johns Hopkins G Gerald Logan has one guy to worry about and that’s Duke’s Justin Guterding, who has recorded 44 goals and 38 assists this season.
Over the course of the men’s college lacrosse championship, of which predates to 1971, the Syracuse Orangemen own the most hardware (10 championships). The program wouldn’t experience its first tournament appearance until 1983, the year in which they won under head coach Roy Simmons, Jr. Johns Hopkins places second with nine titles. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Blue Jays pretty much conquered the lacrosse landscape, claiming seven championships within that span. Other premiere lacrosse programs include North Carolina (5), Virginia (5), Cornell (3) and Duke (3).
Past Men’s Division I Lacrosse Champions (Last 10 Years)
2007: Johns Hopkins Blue Jays
2008, 2009: Syracuse Orangemen
2010, 2013, 2014: Duke Blue Devils
2011: Virginia Cavaliers
2012: Loyola (MD) Greyhounds
2015: Denver Pioneers
2016: North Carolina Tar Heels
Next: Each State's Mt. Rushmore of Sports
The tournament will be scheduled during the last week of May for all levels of college lacrosse. In addition to Division I programs, Gillette Stadium will be home to the championship games of Divisions II and III. As for Division I, the final will be played on Monday, May 29, at 1:00 PM ET. Future college lacrosse tournaments are set to take place in Philadelphia for two years, followed by another two-year championship tournament run in East Hartford.