Bracket (PDF)
NEW YORK – BIG EAST regular season co-champions, Denver and Georgetown, each earned national seeds for the NCAA men’s lacrosse championship field, as announced in the Selection Show on Sunday night. Georgetown, the three-time BIG EAST tournament champion, earned the No. 5 seed and will face former BIG EAST rival Syracuse in the First Round on Saturday, May 15. Denver, the tournament runner-up, earned a No. 7 seed and will host Loyola in the first round on Sunday, May 16.
Denver is one of four host sites in the first round, joining Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Georgetown will travel just around the Beltway to College Park, Md., for their first round game.
The Hoyas and Orange will faceoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU. They will play at Capital One Stadium. The winner will face the winner of Virginia/Bryant in a quarterfinal game on May 22 in Hempstead, N.Y.
The following evening, the Pios will also faceoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU, playing at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The winner of Denver and Loyola will play the winner of No. 2 Duke and High Point on Sunday, May 23 at Arlotta Stadium in South Bend, Ind.
Georgetown (11-2, 9-1 BIG EAST) and Syracuse have not played since 2013 and split their last two meetings. Syracuse won 9-8 in D.C. in 2013 while the Hoyas won 10-8 in Syracuse in 2012. No stranger to each other in the NCAA Tournament, the programs have met three times before Syracuse defeated the Hoyas 13-9 in College Park in the 1999 semifinals, won 17-13 in Piscataway, New Jersey in the 2000 quarterfinals and won 8-7 in Ithaca, New York in the 2004 quarterfinals. Syracuse earned an at-large bid to the tournament. Saturday will be Georgetown’s 14th appearance in the NCAA field.
Denver (12-3, 9-1) is making its 12th appearance in the NCAA Championship, the 10th under head coach Bill Tierney. Old conference foes in the ECAC, Denver and Loyola will meet for the seventh time on Sunday, splitting the first six contests three apiece. The Pioneers are 1-2 against Loyola at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The two teams have not met since a 13-12 Denver overtime win in Baltimore in 2013. Loyola was an at-large selection from the Patriot League. The Greyhounds withdrew from the Patriot League Championships due to COVID-19 protocol. Lehigh earned the Patriot League’s automatic berth by virtue of no-contest.
In the final U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches’ poll which was released on Monday, Georgetown was ranked sixth nationally. Denver seventh.
All Division I first round games will be televised on ESPNU. The quarterfinal games will all be televised on ESPNU on May 22 at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead, New York and May 23 at Arlotta Family Lacrosse Stadium in South Bend, Ind. The Division I semifinal and championship games, and the Division II and III championship games, will be held at Pratt and Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., May 29-31 and hosted by Fairfield University. The Division I semifinals will be televised live on ESPN2 starting at Noon Eastern time, May 29. The championship game will be televised live on ESPN2 starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time, May 31.
Upcoming #BIGEASTmlax Schedule
Saturday, May 15
No. 5 GEORGETOWN vs. Syracuse, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Sunday, May 16
Loyola at No. 7 DENVER, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)