3 N.E. lax teams in women’s field

Boston College, UMass and Bryant are among the 26 teams that comprise this year’s NCAA Division 1 women’s lacrosse tournament, which culminates with the championship weekend at Gillette Stadium from May 26-28.

BC (13-6) will play Canisius at Syracuse while Umass (16-3) faces Colorado at Philadelphia in the first round. BC, ranked 12th in the country, drew an atlarge bid. The Eagles lost to defending national champion North Carolina, 17-14, in the ACC tournament.

Bryant (13-4) will travel to Stony Brook in the first round. The Bulldogs punched their ticket by beating Wagner, 16-7, in yesterday’s Northeast Conference title game. All three games will take place this Friday.

Only three New England schools have ever won the tournament in its 36-year history: UMass in 1982; New Hampshire in 1985; and Harvard in 1990.

UMass received its automatic bid after beating Richmond, 13-12, yesterday in Philadelphia. It was the ninth consecutive Atlantic-10 title for the Minutewomen, who secured the crown when senior defender Sarah Crowley potted the gamewinner with 3:15 left. Senior defender Hannah Murphy of Duxbury was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“I think, No. 1, we’re going to celebrate this victory first and enjoy this because our players have worked so hard for this,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “We’re also in the middle of exams. So our practice for the NCAA will be kind of a nice little distraction away from the schoolwork and everything else.”

The Minutewomen weren’t too disappointed to have to hit the road for their first round game.

“Each year that we’ve been in this we’ve faced a lot of different opponents and, at this time of the year, they’re all seasoned and playing well,’’ McMahon said. “No team is easy.”

In addition to Murphy and Crowley, UMass has an arsenal of offensive weapons led by juniors Holly Turner (80 points), Hannah Burnett (team-high 58 goals), senior Callie Santos (40 goals), and sophomore Kiley Anderson (45 goals), who is, coincidentally, a transfer from BC.

Boston College coach Acacia Walker has been involved in the NCAA tournament in 14 of the last 15 seasons, highlighted by three straight national championship seasons as an assistant coach at Northwestern from 2006-08. The Eagles are led by the attack duo of sophomore Sam Apuzzo (64 goals) and senior Kate Weeks (60 goals).