May 3, 2015
The University of Notre Dame earned the No. 1 national seed and Saturday (May 10) will play host to the winner of a Wednesday (May 6) game between Towson and High Point in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship. The game is scheduled for 5 p.m. (EDT) at Arlotta Stadium and it will be telecast live on ESPNU.
For ticket information, call the Notre Dame ticket office at 574-631-7356 or visit UND.com/tickets.
Notre Dame (10-2) claimed the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title. Towson (11-5) and High Point (10-6) earned automatic berths from the Colonial Athletic Conference and the Southern Conference, respectively. The Irish have never met Towson or High Point.
This marks the highest seed received by the Irish in the NCAA bracket. Notre Dame was a No. 2 seed, its previous high seed, in 2013.
The winner of Notre Dame first-round contest against either Towson or High Point will take on the winner of the first-round tilt between No. 8 seed Cornell and Albany in the quarterfinals May 16 in Denver, Colorado.
The Irish are making their program record 10th straight appearance in the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame and Maryland are the only two programs to earn an NCAA berth each of the last 10 seasons.
Notre Dame owns a 15-19 record in 19 previous trips to the NCAA Championship. The Irish in 2014 were the No. 6 seed and topped Harvard in the first round, Albany in the quarterfinals and Maryland in the semifinals before falling to Duke 11-9 in the NCAA title game. Notre Dame has advanced to at least the quarterfinal round of the last five NCAA Championships (Duke is the only other school to do that).
This is the eighth time overall–and seventh time in the last eight seasons–the 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), 2013 (2nd) and 2014 (6th) tournaments. Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA championship weekend in 2001, 2010, 2012 and 2014–and played in the title game in 2010 and 2014.
The 18-team NCAA Championship field is comprised of 10 automatic-qualifying teams and eight at-large squads. The top eight teams in the bracket are seeded. All five ACC programs made the field and all five are seeded–Notre Dame No. 1, Syracuse No. 2, North Carolina No. 3, Duke No. 5 and Virginia No. 7.
Notre Dame faced five of the other seeded teams this season (posting a 4-2 mark) and six programs overall that made the NCAA field. The Fighting Irish went 5-2 against those six squads (victories over No. 2 seed Syracuse, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 5 Duke, No. 7 Virginia and Ohio State, with losses to No. 4 Denver and No. 5 Duke).
The tournament’s semifinals and finals will be held May 23 and 25 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information on the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship, including a complete bracket, log onto ncaa.com.
Here’s the NCAA schedule for the first week of play:
Wednesday, May 6
High Point (Southern AQ, 10-6) at Towson (CAA AQ, 11-5)
Bryant (NEC AQ, 8-9) at Marist (MAAC AQ, 13-3)
Saturday, May 9
#8 Cornell (Ivy at-large, 10-5) vs. Albany (America East AQ, 15-2), noon
#6 Maryland (Big Ten at-large, 12-3) vs. Yale (Ivy AQ, 11-4), 2:30 p.m.
#1 Notre Dame (ACC at-large, 10-2) vs. Towson-High Point winner, 5 p.m.
#5 Duke (ACC at-large, 12-5) vs. Ohio State (Big Ten at large, ), 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 10
#7 Virginia (ACC at-large, 10-4) vs. Johns Hopkins (Big Ten AQ, 9-6), 1 p.m.
#4 Denver (Big East AQ, 12-2) vs. Brown (Ivy at-large, 12-4), 3 p.m.
#3 North Carolina (ACC at-large, 12-3) vs. Colgate (Patriot AQ, 10-5), 5:15 p.m.
#2 Syracuse (ACC AQ, 12-2) vs. Bryant-Marist winner, 7:30 p.m.
All eight Saturday and Sunday games are televised live on ESPNU or ESPN2.
The University of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team pursues excellence on and off the field through the three pillars in which the program is built:Character, Culture & Community. These three foundational values guide the promise of the program, which is to provide its student-athletes with the most compelling and enriching experience in all of college athletics. Through academics, competition, service and travel, the program aims to immerse its players in situations that enhance their student-athlete experience to help them become the people, students and teammates they aspire to be.
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