The
University of Florida lacrosse has earned the No. 5 seed in this year’s NCAA
Tournament, announced Sunday evening. The Gators (17-2) will host
Jacksonville and Denver in the first and second rounds in Gainesville on May 10
and 12 at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
Florida
earns a bye in the first round facing the winner of the Dolphins and Pioneers
on May 12 at 1 p.m. This will be the third-straight year UF will host a portion
of the NCAA Tournament. The top six seeds of the NCAA Tournament receive first
round-byes to automatically advance to the second round.
Maryland
(19-0) earns the No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament field with Northwestern
(17-2), North Carolina (14-3) and Syracuse (16-3) grabbing the first four
seeds. Florida has wins over the Wildcats, Tar Heels and Orange this season but
a loss to Northwestern in the ALC Tournament Championship on Sunday played a
major factor in tournament seeding. Georgetown earned the final bye in the
tournament as the six seed. Penn State and Navy pick up the 7 and 8 seeds,
respectively but will have to play in the first round.
UF
has a history with both Jacksonville and Denver headed into Sunday’s second
round action. Florida and Jacksonville have met in each of the four years of
both program’s existence with UF holding a 4-1 advantage over the Dolphins.
Florida most recently defeated the Dolphins 15-4 in Jacksonville on February
13. The Orange and Blue met the Pioneers on February 20, 2011 in a 15-7 win at
Dizney Stadium.
Jacksonville
(A Sun) earned automatic bid to the tourney while Denver earned an at-large bid
as it finished runner-up to Stanford in the Mountain Sports Pacific Federation
tournament.
Check
back to GatorZone.com for updated information on the Gainesville NCAA first and
second rounds.
For
all of the latest information on Florida lacrosse, please log on to www.GatorZone.com/lacrosse or, for
up-to-the-minute updates, follow Florida lacrosse on Twitter at @GatorZoneLAX
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NCAA
Lacrosse Championship First Round Schedule
#1
Maryland vs. winner of Stony Brook vs. Towson
#2
Northwestern vs. winner of Notre Dame vs. Stanford
#3
North Carolina vs. winner of Loyola (MD) vs. High Point
#4
Syracuse vs. winner of Boston College vs. Dartmouth
#5
Florida vs. winner of Denver vs. Jacksonville
#6
Georgetown vs. winner of Penn vs. Virginia
#7
Penn State vs. Caniscius
UMass
vs. UConn at State College, Pa.
#8
Navy vs. Monmouth
Duke
vs. Princeton at Annapolis, Md.
