As the days grow short before No. 4 Dartmouth's women's lacrosse team takes the field in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, it's worth looking over the Big Green's chief competition in their half of the bracket. The plus for Dartmouth is that they've seen most of these squads before, but that won't make Dartmouth's road to the Final Four any easier. Dartmouth will open up against No. 13 Penn State on Thursday.
Maryland
They are back again, and no one in the tournament is happy. The Maryland Terrapins, winners of the last six NCAA Championships, who have reached the Championship game every year since 1990 and all but twice since 1984, are the top seed in this year's tournament.
To make matters worse, the Terps are undefeated on the season. This is the sixth time in history that Maryland has run the table on the regular season and three times, '95, '96 and '99, they also took the NCAA title to complete an undefeated season.
The Terrapins, 19-0, are facing Monmouth, one of only four schools in the tournament that Maryland has not already defeated this season. The Terps are led by one of the strongest offenses in history which amassed 275 goals during the regular season, an average of 14.5 per game.
In addition, they piled up 22 goals on the unsuspecting Japanese National Team in an early season exhibition. Leading the assault is Jen Adams, who tied the NCAA career record for points scored in the next to last game of the season.
The tournament's top 11 seeds have fallen before coach Cindy Timchal's bunch, with only No. 12 Cornell, No. 14 Hofstra and No. 15 Temple joining Monmouth in having avoided Maryland's lethal attack.
A handful of teams have battled the Terps to the wire, and the plus for the rest of the tournament seeds is that Virginia is one of them. The Cavaliers lost to Maryland twice, by one goal each time, and are the favored opponent to meet the defending champs in round two.
All signs point to Maryland sticking around however, and the Big Green would get a chance to avenge its 12-11 loss to the Terps in the semifinals at Johns Hopkins University if all goes according to plan.
Princeton
The Tigers tied Dartmouth for the regular season title in the Ivy League, but lost to Dartmouth 13-5 and find themselves as a fifth seed in the tournament. Princeton, 12-4 overall, will open up the tournament against a very familiar foe, the Big Red of Cornell.
The two Ivy League squads battled in Ithaca, N.Y. on March 31 with Princeton coming away with a 9-5 victory. However, the two teams are going in opposite directions.
The 11-3 Big Red have won four of their last five games after losing a heartbreaking two-overtime game to Dartmouth while Princeton has lost three of its last four. Granted that those losses are to Dartmouth, Maryland and No. 3 Georgetown, but the Tigers' confidence cannot be at an all-time high.
The Tigers can only hope to beat Cornell and then break their curse against the Big Green who have triumphed over Princeton in every game they've played since 1996. Princeton is the last team to taste the championship, having won it in 1994, and were last year's runner-up having been pummeled by the Terps 16-8.
Dartmouth would love to hammer Princeton a second time this year, and the Tigers can't be looking forward to the showdown that looms in the second round.
Virginia
The Cavaliers have one of the most successful programs of late, having been in three of the last five championship games including 1998 and 1999 but they just can't beat Maryland. The No. 8 Cavs will open its tournament by hosting No. 9 James Madison who Virginia thrashed 15-6 on April 4.
Virginia has some of the best talent in the ACC, the country's premier conference this year, with ACC Rookie of the Year Caitlin Banks and two All-ACC first teamers, Lauri Kenis and Lauren Aumiller. The Cavaliers have had more success against Maryland than anyone else, losing 8-7 at home on March 13 and just getting clipped 7-6 in the ACC Tournament in Orlando, FL.
The Cavaliers who are 11-6 on the season have played only two other schools in their half of the draw, falling to Princeton 9-6 on March 18 and topping Penn State 15-11 on March 16. Virginia is 5-6 against Tournament-bound squads and will need to improve greatly upon that mark if they hope to go anywhere.
A possible UVA-Dartmouth match-up could materialize if the Cavs can dethrone the champs in their third meeting of the year, and that possibility has fans in Hanover and Charlottesville buzzing.
