The word came down Sunday night. Dartmouth's women's lacrosse team was seeded fourth in the 16-team NCAA Tournament, behind two of the three teams it had lost to, Maryland and Duke. Dartmouth's third loss came at the hands of Yale who, after being ranked in the top 10 for much of the year, was conspicuously absent after late season losses to Princeton, Duke, Notre Dame, Cornell and Johns Hopkins.
While Dartmouth gears up for its opening battle with Penn State, the other tournament bound teams are preparing to make their run at the title. Let's take a look at those teams who will battle to reach the finals against the winner of Dartmouth's half of the draw.
Duke
The Blue Devils are seeded second in the tourney and in the national poll. The tournament seeding is the highest that Duke has ever received.
Duke is led by the high-scoring tandem of junior Kate Kaiser and sophomore Lauren Gallagher who are tied for the team lead with 51 points each. The two have combined for 80 of Duke's 202 team goals.
To put that high-powered offense into perspective, Dartmouth, one of the Ivy League's best offensive teams, has only 163 goals on the season.
The Blue Devils come into the tournament with a 14-3 record, the best in the history of the program. They have lost only once since March 22 in the ACC Tournament Final to No. 1 seed Maryland.
Duke's other losses on the year came in the regular season to the Terrapins and to the Princeton Tigers. The Durham crew boasts victories over No. 3 Georgetown, No.4 Dartmouth, two against No. 6 North Carolina, No. 8 Virginia, No. 9 James Madison, No. 10 William & Mary and No. 14 Hofstra.
Duke will open up play at home against the 15th seed, Temple, on Thursday. The Owls made it to the tournament with a 13-5 record after knocking off Duquesne 10-9 in the Atlantic 10 championship game.
If Duke can keep its offense on the attack, the early season results may repeat themselves and carry the Blue Devils into the NCAA finals. All the fans will be hoping to avoid Maryland, but it's a guarantee that the Dukies will be drooling over a chance to hammer their ACC rivals in order to win the NCAA title.
Georgetown
The Hoyas hold the third seed and are the reigning Big East champion. They are seeded behind Duke despite their superior record because of a head-to-head loss to the Blue Devils on March 24 and because they play in a weaker conference. Syracuse is the only other Big East squad to be selected for the 16-team field.
The Hoyas are led by two dynamic All-Americans, Sheehan Stanwick and Caitlin McLean. Stanwick is a three-time All-American at striker while McLean will likely be named to her second-straight All-American team at midfield this season.
With these two veterans forming the backbone of one of the strongest offenses in the country, having scored a whopping 239 goals in 16 games. Combined with a stingy defense that allowed only 104 tallies, the Hoyas were able to amass a 14-2 record on the year.
The only teams to trump the Hoyas are appropriately Maryland and Duke, the No.1 and No. 2 seeds respectively. Georgetown has not played as many of the other tournament entrants as Duke but does have victories over Princeton, North Carolina, James Madison, William & Mary, No. 11 Syracuse and No. 13 Penn State.
Georgetown will square off against Hofstra in the opening round, though the 16-2 Pride are not expected to be able to upset the Hoyas. Georgetown must guard against looking towards a rematch with Duke in the semifinals to avenge the early season 8-7 loss.
North Carolina
Overlooked during this season in the ACC with the success of Duke and Virginia, the Tarheels can still play with anyone in the country. UNC is seeded sixth in the tournament and will host Syracuse on Thursday.
The charges of Jenny Singluff Levy compiled only a 10-6 record, but that includes five to the top four seeds. After dropping a tight 8-7 game to Maryland in early March, the Tarheels were stunned by Boston University 14-7 and then fell to Duke 10-9.
Georgetown pounded on the Tarheels to end their four-game winning streak and Duke and Dartmouth beat UNC in consecutive games at the end of the year. The positive for the Tarheels was a frustration-releasing 20-5 whooping of U. Mass April 29 to bring them into the tournament hungry and out for blood.
UNC will need at least one big win to improve on last year's quarterfinal-finish, and they only have a few this season. No. 7 Loyola, Virginia, James Madison, William & Mary and Penn State all fell to the Tarheels during the season but the last one of those wins was April 11.
The Tarheels should get past Syracuse but then will have to reach deep down and find a way to reach a new level if they hope to advance against Georgetown.
Loyola
The Greyhounds are headed to their sixth straight NCAA tournament, this time as the No. 7 seed. They are owners of the Colonial Athletic Association title and have amassed a 13-4 record on the season.
Opposing Loyola in the opening round will be the Pride of William & Mary, a fellow CAA member who the Greyhounds beat 14-7 back on March 24. Loyola is 4-4 against other tournament seeds with victories over Penn State, James Madison and Princeton as well.
The Greyhounds have suffered defeat at the hands of the ACC trio of Maryland, UNC and Virginia, but are unlikely to face any of them. Should Loyola once again trounce the nation's third oldest school, they will come up against the red-hot Blue Devils of Duke.
Unfortunately for the Greyhounds, they have been struggling at the wrong time of year, losing three in a row before a narrow 11-9 triumph over lowly Brown. If Loyola has any hope of winning the title, they will have to reverse their fortune and return to the form that led them to a 13-9 win a Princeton and an 11-4 win over JMU.
