(Photo Courtesy of UAlbany Athletics)
The regular season has come. Conference tournament brackets have been set and postseason play is in full swing.
Both the Big Ten and MAAC got their conference tournaments underway on Saturday with quarterfinal play. The rest of the DI landscape will officially join the party this week with the ASUn and Patriot League getting things off and running on Tuesday while the rest of the conferences will do so on Thursday and Friday.
As arguably the best week of the year for lacrosse fans begins, here is a look at one storyline to watch in every conference tournament.
ACC
*No AQ to the NCAA
Seeding:
No. 1 Notre Dame
No. 2 Syracuse
No. 3 Duke
No. 4 Virginia
Missed the cut: North Carolina
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Does Notre Dame Keeping Rolling?
The defending national champions have looked every bit the part of a team that can defend that title all season long. The Irish, with their only blemish being an overtime loss to Georgetown in late February, enter the postseason on an eight-game winning streak that includes an unbeaten 4-0 record in ACC play. Can the Irish keep on rolling and take both the ACC regular season and tournament crown in the first year of the tournament’s return?
To continue that successful run, the top-seed Irish will first have to get through No. 4 Virginia for a second time in six days. A win on Friday would have the winner of Syracuse-Duke waiting on Sunday.
America East
Seeding:
No. 1 UAlbany
No. 2 Vermont
No. 3 UMBC
No. 4 Merrimack
Missed the cut: Bryant, Binghamton, NJIT, UMass Lowell
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
The Dane Train is Back Up
For the first time since making its only run to Championship Weekend in 2018, UAlbany is the America East regular season champions and will host the conference tournament. The Danes went 6-1 in league play during the regular season with its only league loss coming to Bryant.
Headlined by a 51-point (33G/18A) scorer in Silas Richmond and an electrifying pole in Jake Piseno (34CT/63GB/10G/4A), the Danes will be looking to climb back to the top of the America East mountain for the first time in six years. The Danes will have to get through Merrimack in the semifinals and either Vermont or UMBC in the title game to make that dream come true.
ASUN
Seeding:
No. 1 Utah
No. 2 Air Force
No. 3 Jacksonville
No. 4 Bellarmine
No. 5 Cleveland State
No. 6 Robert Morris
Missed the cut: Detroit Mercy, Mercer, Queens, Lindenwood
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Does The Title Head South?
The ASUN’s main footprint is in the South. Lacrosse-wise, four of its programs lie below the Mason-Dixon line: Bellarmine, Jacksonville, Mercer, and Queens. The former two are both in the postseason for a third consecutive season. For Jacksonville, it is the program’s seventh consecutive conference tournament appearance since John Galloway took over as head coach in 2017. The Dolphins are 23-8 (15-3) since rejoining the ASUN in 2023. Jacksonville has, however, never won a conference title and last year were upset by Robert Morris in the quarterfinals.
Jacksonville enters this year’s ASUN Tournament as the No. 3 seed once again and will play Robert Morris in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. Is this the year the Dolphins finally get it done in May?
Atlantic 10
Seeding:
No. 1 Saint Joseph’s
No. 2 Richmond
No. 3 High Point
No. 4 UMass
Missed the cut: Hobart, St. Bonaventure
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Can Saint Joseph’s Stay Perfect?
After starting the year 0-3, the Saint Joseph’s Hawks have embarked on an incredible run as they enter the postseason on a 10-game winning streak. That includes a 5-0 stretch in A10 play that commenced with a 10-9 victory over Richmond in the season finale. The Hawks enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed for a second year in a row. Taylor Wray’s squad, which has leaned heavily on its chaotic style of play headlined by the 10-man ride, is unbeaten in A10 regular season play since the league began a year ago.
With Richmond as the No. 2 seed, many expect the Hawks and Spiders to meet again in the A10 title game. If that expectation comes to fruition, will Saint Joseph’s be able to stay perfect and indeed reach the top of the mountain in the league. The Hawks failed a year ago with a loss to High Point in the first-ever A10 title game.
Big East
Seeding:
No. 1 Denver
No. 2 Georgetown
No. 3 Providence
No. 4 Villanova
Missed the cut: St. John’s, Marquette
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Denver’s Year?
In 2015, Denver became the first (and so far only) team west of the Mississippi River to win a national title. That year, consequently, is the last time that the Pioneers won the Big East. Marquette won the two years following (2016, 2017) and Georgetown has won each of the last five tournaments (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023). Denver fell in the league title game to the Hoyas in all but one of those years (2022).
Enter the conference tournament as the top seed and having handed Georgetown a 10-8 defeat in the regular season, there is real belief that this is Denver’s year to get back to the top of the league. And if they indeed do so, it would be a tremendous finish for Matt Brown in year one at the helm of his alma mater.
Big Ten
Seeding:
No. 1 Johns Hopkins
No. 2 Maryland
No. 3 Penn State
No. 4 Michigan
No. 5 Ohio State
No. 6 Rutgers
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Magical Michigan?
Last spring, Michigan made a memorable first NCAA Tournament run. After beating arch rival Ohio State in the season finale they went on to top the Buckeyes in the Big Ten quarterfinals. That two wins over Buckeyes became part of a five-game winning streak that carried the Wolverines to a Big Ten title and the NCAA Quarterfinals. Now, in 2024, Michigan has to be feeling a bit of deja vu as they topped Ohio State in their season finale and beat them in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Saturday.
Can Michigan, who has been led all year by one of the top goal-scorers in Justin Tiernan, replicate a similar trajectory to last season? The Wolverines will face top-seeded Johns Hopkins in the conference semifinals and a win would pit them against Maryland or Penn State in the title game.
CAA
Seeding:
No. 1 Towson
No. 2 Delaware
No. 3 Fairfield
No. 4 Drexel
Missed the cut: Hofstra, Monmouth, Stony Brook, Hampton
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Towson is Back
From 2013 through 2019, Towson won five CAA titles and made seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Since 2019, however, Shawn Nadelen’s squad hasn’t finished with a winning record and has no NCAA appearances or conference titles to speak of. With an 11-3 record overall and 7-0 mark in the CAA that includes an 11-10 win over reigning league power Delaware, the feeling is that Towson is back.
The Tigers have a semifinal date with Drexel and if they win will play the winner of Delaware-Fairfield in the title game. Can the Tigers get through a tournament that has been known for craziness of the years and ascend back to the top of the mountain in the CAA?
Ivy League
Seeding:
No. 1 Cornell
No. 2 Princeton
No. 3 Yale
No. 4 Penn
Missed the cut: Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Goalie Play Determines The Champion?
One could argue that defense in the Ivy League this season has been more of a suggestion than an obligation. All but two teams (Princeton, Penn) in the league have allowed 11 or more goals on average this season. Against Ivy competition, Penn, Princeton, and Cornell have allowed 10 goals per game. All three of those aforementioned teams have goalies who rank in the top 10 nationally in save percentage. Penn’s Emmett Carroll (59.4%) leads the league while Cornell’s Wyatt Knust (57.5%) and Princeton’s Michael Gianforcaro (57.3%) sit at second and third in the league.
With the Ivy having two top three scoring offenses (Yale, Cornell) and four top 20 scoring offenses (Princeton, Harvard) goalie play has been crucial to winning games in league play. In the postseason will we see the team with the hottest goalie win the league title?
MAAC
Seeding:
No. 1 Sacred Heart
No. 2 LIU
No. 3 Manhattan
No. 4 Marist
No. 5 Siena
No.6 Quinnipiac
Missed the cut: VMI, Mount St. Mary’s, Canisius, Wagner
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
How Wacky Will Things Get?
The MAAC has a reputation as being the most parity-ridden conference in college lacrosse. The final standings each year are almost impossible to predict and the conference tournament, traditionally, has been the same way. Only twice in the past six years (2017, 2019) has the top seed won the conference. Just twice in that time frame (2019, 2021) has the top two seeds been in the title game. The league has seen eight different teams in the title game in the past five years.
Further more, no program has repeated as champions since Providence in 2007 and 2008. That streak will live through another year with Marist losing to Siena in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Manhattan beat Quinnipiac in the final seconds in the other quarterfinal. How wacky will things indeed get in this year’s version of the MAAC tourney?
Patriot League
Seeding:
No. 1 Army West Point
No. 2 Lehigh
No. 3 Navy
No. 4 Boston U.
No. 5 Colgate
No. 6 Loyola
Missed the cut: Bucknell, Lafayette, Holy Cross
Bracket
Storyline to Watch
Who Play’s Spolier?
Six years out of the past decade (nine tournaments), one of the teams who is tasked with playing in the quarterfinal round made it to the title game. The last instance coming just a year ago where a fifth-seeded Loyola squad advanced to play No. 2 Army West Point in the championship game. This season, Army and Lehigh get the bye as the top two seeds while Navy, Boston U., Colgate, and Loyola will all have to win a quarterfinal game on Tuesday in order to keep their season alive.
With how close this conference has been this season, there is a good chance that a lower seed is able to make a run. The question is who will it be. Colgate has upset both Penn State Army this year. Loyola went on a 5-1 run and nearly beat Army to end the season. Boston U. and Navy can’t be slept on either, even with some losses that don’t look so good.
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