May 4, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame earned the No. 6 national seed and will play host to Harvard Saturday in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship. The game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. (ET) at Arlotta Stadium and it will be broadcast live on ESPNU and WatchESPN.com.
For ticket information, call the Notre Dame ticket office at 574-631-7356 or visit UND.com/tickets.
Notre Dame (9-5) claimed the Atlantic Coast Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship after winning the league tournament last weekend. Harvard (10-6) earned an at-large berth from the Ivy League. This will be the 11th meeting all-time between Notre Dame and Harvard but the first since the 2003 campaign. The Fighting Irish hold a 7-3 advantage in the series.
The winner of the Notre Dame-Harvard contest will take on the winner of the first-round tilt between No. 3 seed Loyola and Albany in the quarterfinals on May 17 in Hempstead, N.Y.
The Irish are making their program record ninth straight appearance in the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame and Maryland are the only two programs to earn an NCAA berth each of the last nine seasons.
Notre Dame owns a 12-18 record in 18 previous trips to the tournament. Last season, the Irish were the No. 2 seed and topped Detroit, 9-7, in the first round before falling to Duke, 12-11, in the quarterfinals. Notre Dame has advanced to at least the quarterfinal round of the last four NCAA tournaments.
This is the seventh time overall – and sixth time in the last seven seasons – the Fighting Irish have earned one of the eight national seeds for the NCAA Championship. The Irish also were seeded for the 2001 (5th), 2008 (6th), 2009 (7th), 2011 (4th), 2012 (4th) and 2013 (2nd) tournaments.
The 18-team NCAA Championship field is comprised of 10 automatic-qualifying teams and eight at-large squads. Only the top eight teams in the bracket are seeded. Duke is this year’s top seed, while Syracuse is the No. 2 seed. All six ACC programs made the field and five of those squads are seeded.
Notre Dame faced five of the other seeded teams this season and six programs overall that made the NCAA field. The Fighting Irish went 4-4 against those six squads.
The tournament’s semifinals and finals will be held May 24 and 26 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. For more information on the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship, including a complete bracket, log onto ncaa.com
— ND —