Lacrosse Preview- May 1

We start the preview for the last weekend of the regular season in Baltimore. There are three important games taking place there this weekend. We start at Johns Hopkins where the Blue Jays host Loyola. Johns Hopkins needs a win to keep their hopes for a top six NCAA seed alive and Loyola is on the bubble to make the tournament if they don’t win the ECAC automatic bid. In order for that to happen Rutgers needs to upset UMASS. Loyola was also hurt by Hofstra losing in the CAA tournament because there will be one less at large bid available. A win over Hopkins would make the committee think twice about leaving them out. This game starts at 1pm tomorrow and will be on Ch. 2 and ESPNU. UMBC hosts Stony Brook in the America East championship game at 7:30. The Retrievers needed double overtime to beat Binghamton 9-8 in the semifinals Wednesday night.  Ryan Smith had the game winner. The winner gets an automatic NCAA bid. UMBC is on the bubble if they lose and Stony Brook will be out with a loss. Towson beat Drexel 10-2 on Wednesday to advance to the CAA championship game. Villanova upset Hofstra in the other semifinal. So instead of traveling to Long Island the Tigers get to host the Wildcats tomorrow night also at 7:30. Both teams need the automatic bid to get into the NCAA tournament. Maryland is also in acion tomorrow. The Terps travel to Yale at 1:00.

In division three Washington College plays Gettysburg in the Centennial Conference semifinals. The game takes place at top seed Haverford who plays McDaniel in the other semifinal. The winners meet Sunday at 1:00 for the automatic bid.

Sunday is also selection Sunday for the NCAA tournaments. ESPNU will have the men’s division one bracket at 9pm. CBS College Sports will have the brackets for the men and women in each division at 10pm.

I will recap on Monday and breakdown the brackets.

Bryan in Annapolis