Terps women enter unseeded — again
Johns Hopkins men end 4-year postseason absence, come in as No. 6 seed
The most decorated program in Division I women’s lacrosse didn’t get any favorable treatment from the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Maryland, winners of 14 national championships, is unseeded for the second time in the past three years and will travel to Harrisonburg,
Virginia, where the Terps (14-6) will tangle with Drexel (12-5) in the first round Friday at 5 p.m. The game will start after the other first-round matchup involving No. 7 seed and host James Madison (17-2) and Army West Point (15-3) at 2 p.m.
Maryland, which lost to No. 1 seed Northwestern in Saturday night’s Big Ten Tournament final, continued its streak of competing in every NCAA tournament since 1990. The Terps won national championships in 1986, 1992, 1995 to 2001, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
But they will not play host to first- and second-round games despite five of their six setbacks occurring against higher-seeded opponents, including two to the Wildcats (17-1). Coach Cathy Reese said a 12-7 loss at Penn State on April 13 might have influenced the selection committee.
“I knew there would be a discussion about it,” she said of that outcome. “I don’t really have an opinion. It is what it is, and this is the hand we’re dealt, and now it’s just time for us to prepare and go play and get ready to be the best we can on Friday.”
Asked if she thought the players might use the snub as motivation this weekend, Reese replied, “No, because we don’t talk about it like that. We really prepare. We say, ‘Listen, we’re making the tournament based on our body of work that we have.’ And the one thing I knew going in was that we were going to make the tournament. I know we had done what we needed to make it. I didn’t know where we would fall, but the people who decide based on our work and the criteria, they’ll figure out where it is that we fall — whether we were seeded in the top eight or sent to a site to play. It is what it is, and it’s just not something that
we’re focused on at all.”
Maryland’s loss might have been Loyola Maryland’s gain. The Greyhounds drew the No. 8 seed, the last of the seeded teams, in the 29-team bracket and will serve as a host to three other teams for first- and secondround games this weekend at Ridley Athletic Complex.
Loyola (17-2) will face Fairfield (14-4) Friday at noon. The other first-round matchup will pit Penn State (11-6) against Stony Brook (14-3) Friday at 3 p.m.
“I’m extremely proud of the games we’ve played and the level of competition that we played and how we have persevered through,” she said after her team’s 13-8 win against Army West Point in Saturday’s Patriot League Tournament final. “And I think that’s the beauty of playoffs. You don’t know. It’s up to a group of people sitting in a room to decide your fate. But our motto and mantra all season is, anyone, anywhere, any time, and I think that bodes well going into the playoffs.”
Johns Hopkins was awarded an at-large berth despite an 8-8 record and a quarterfinal exit from the Big Ten Tournament on April 28. The Blue Jays, who will make their fifth straight appearance in the postseason, will travel to Syracuse, New York, and clash with UMass (16-2) Friday at 2 p.m. The winner will advance to a second-round meeting with No. 2 seed Syracuse (16-2), which earned a bye.
Men’s bracket
Johns Hopkins ended a four-year absence from the postseason and earned the No. 6 seed. Four years might not seem like much, but for a school that has captured nine national championships since the postseason’s debut in 1971 and once took pride in a 41-year streak of consecutive appearances in the postseason until that run ended in 2013, that absence felt like an eternity among the players, coaches and fans.
After compiling an 11-18 record in the previous two years, Johns Hopkins is 11-5 this spring and will face Bryant (12-4) Sunday at noon at Homewood Field in Baltimore. It will be the program’s first home game in the NCAA Tournament since May 13, 2018, when that squad — a No. 5 seed at the time — edged Georgetown, 12-11, in overtime on Shack Stanwick’s game-winner.
The Blue Jays’ entry to the NCAA Tournament is their first since 2019 and first under coach Peter Milliman, who succeeded Dave Pietramala after the 2020 season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The only players still on the roster who were members of that 2019 team are a trio of graduate students in attackman Garrett Degnon, a Harwood resident, faceoff specialist Matt Narewski and midfielder Jack Hawley.
“Making it to the NCAA Tournament is always rewarding,” Milliman said. “It’s a recognition of what you’ve done that year and an opportunity for you to take another step as a program. So I think it’s always a great thing for Johns Hopkins lacrosse as a whole. I’m just proud of this program and proud of these guys and excited for a chance to keep playing.”
Johns Hopkins’ seeding was two spots behind reigning national champion Maryland, which earned the No. 4 seed — the program’s lowest seed since 2019 when that squad went unseeded. The Terps will meet Army West Point (12-3) Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at SECU
Stadium in College Park.
The Terps (10-5) have participated in every NCAA Tournament since 2003. But their bid to capture their fifth Big Ten Tournament championship was stymied by Michigan in a 14-5 setback Saturday evening at Homewood Field.
The Wolverines (9-6) and Penn State (9-4) gave the Big Ten four representatives in the 17-team NCAA Tournament — the most of any conference. Three schools from the Atlantic Coast Conference earned the top three seeds — No. 1 seed Duke (13-2), No. 2 seed Virginia (11-4) and No. 3 seed Notre Dame (10-2).
Michigan, the league champion and an NCAA postseason participant for the first time, is unseeded and will travel to No. 8 seed Cornell (11-3) for a first-round game Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Nittany Lions were awarded the No. 5 seed and will clash with Princeton (8-6) Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in State College, Pennsylvania.
Not included in the field is Denver (10-5) and coach Bill Tierney, who announced his decision to retire at the end of this season, his 42nd as a lacrosse coach. He is the only Division I coach to win NCAA titles at two institutions having captured six crowns at Princeton and one at Denver.
How can I watch?
ESPNU will broadcast all of the men’s tournament games through the quarterfinals. The semifinals will be broadcast on ESPN2, and the championship game will be televised on ESPN.
The first and second rounds of the women’s tournament will be livestreamed on ESPN+. ESPNU will broadcast the quarterfinals and semifinals, and the championship game will be televised on ESPN.
When and where is championship weekend?
As is tradition, the champions will be crowned on Memorial Day weekend.
The men’s quarterfinals will be held Saturday, May 20, at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium in Albany, New York, and Sunday, May 21, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. The women’s quarterfinals will be hosted by the higher seed May 18.
The men’s semifinals and championship game will be held Saturday, May 27, and Monday, May 29, at Lincoln Financial Field
in Philadelphia.
The women’s semifinals and championship game will take place Friday, May 26, and Sunday, May 28, at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.
Schedule MEN Opening round
Marist at Delaware, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
First round
Richmond at No. 2 seed Virginia, Saturday, noon
Utah at No. 3 seed Notre Dame, Saturday, 2:30 p.m.
Yale at No. 7 seed Georgetown, Saturday, 5 p.m. Army West Point at No. 4 seed Maryland, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Bryant at No. 6 seed Johns Hopkins, Sunday, noon
Michigan at No. 8 seed Cornell, Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
Delaware/Marist winner at No. 1 seed Duke, Sunday, 5 p.m.
Princeton at No. 5 seed Penn State, Sunday, 7:30 p.m.
WOMEN First round (all games Friday)
Fairfield at No. 8 seed Loyola Maryland, noon Penn vs. UConn, 1 p.m. (at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts)
Sacred Heart at No. 4 seed North Carolina, 2 p.m.
Johns Hopkins vs. UMass, 2 p.m. (at Syracuse, New York)
Army West Point at No. 7 seed James Madison, 2 p.m.
Stony Brook vs. Penn State, 3 p.m. (at Loyola Maryland’s Ridley Athletic Complex) Jacksonville at No. 6 seed Florida, 4 p.m. Southern California at No. 5 seed Denver, 5 p.m. Maryland vs. Drexel, 5 p.m. (at Harrisonburg, Virginia)
Richmondvs.Marquette,5p.m.(atChapelHill, North Carolina)
Michigan vs. Central Michigan, 7 p.m. (at Evanston, Illinois)
Notre Dame vs. Mercer, 7 p.m. (at Gainesville, Florida)
Virginia vs. Albany, 8 p.m. (at Denver)
Second round (all games Sunday)
Michigan/Central Michigan winner at No. 1 seed Northwestern, noon
Penn/UConn winner at No. 3 seed Boston College, 1 p.m.
Johns Hopkins/UMass winner at No. 2 seed Syracuse, 3 p.m.