NCAA men's lacrosse tournament bracket winners and losers include Princeton, ACC
The NCAA men's lacrosse field of 18 teams is out. Who were the winners and losers in the bracket selection? We break them down.
As usual, the unveiling of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament bracket Sunday night produced many expected results – and a few unexpected ones. The committee was tasked not only with choosing the eight at-large teams that would join the 10 automatic qualifiers, but also with deciding the eight seeded squads that would get to play at home in the first round. As with all such matters in the world of collegiate sports, not everyone can be happy with the committee’s decisions.
Here are some of the winners and losers from a busy conference championship weekend and Selection Sunday, starting with the highest seeds. Winners Princeton The Tigers completed an impressive weekend at the Ivy League tournament a close defeat of Yale in the semifinals and dominating win against Cornell in the title game. The run helped them grab the top seed.
Princeton was the second seed in 2001 when the program won its most recent title, but the Tigers aren’t about to complain. Notre Dame The Fighting Irish handled everyone on their schedule not named Virginia all season, but they were nosed out for the top seed by Princeton with their loss in the ACC semifinals. They’ll nevertheless be among the favorites in what is an admittedly wide-open field this year.
Richmond The Atlantic 10 champion Spiders will host a round-of-16 game for the first time. After coming up just a goal short against eventual champion Cornell in last year’s quarterfinals, Richmond, the No. 4 seed, will be looking to take the next step and earn its first trip to championship weekend.