The NCAA has announced its fields for the 2010 men's and women's lacrosse championships. The Middle Atlantic Conference will be represented by Elizabethtown College women's team and Widener University men's team.
Elizabethtown's team will play at Washington & Lee University Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the opening round. The Blue Jays (15-4 overall), making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament, captured the first Middle Atlantic Conference championship in program history with an 11-4 victory over FDU-Florham Saturday afternoon. The Generals (14-4 overall) won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship for the eighth time in the last 10 years by defeating Lynchburg College 14-6 in the title game.
The winner of Wednesday's game will play the winner of a first-round game between the University of Mary Washington and Drew University in regional action Saturday at Franklin & Marshall College.
Elizabethtown is led by MAC Player of the Year candidate Stephanie Kreis, who leads the conference in scoring with 43 goals and 54 assists for 97 points. Sarah Cullinan and MAC tournament MVP Katie Caprinolo share the team lead with 47 goals, while Megan Byrnes has added 37 goals and 21 assists for 58 points.
In goal, Rachael Waldman has compiled a 13-4 record with a 7.98 goals against average in 17 games (16 starts) with 112 saves.
Washington & Lee features a balanced attack led by 36 goals and 44 points from Wilton Megargel and 31 goals from Maddie McKaig. Kathy Brown anchors the General defense with 38 ground balls and 30 caused turnovers, while Katharine Farrar has an 8.32 goals against average and a .494 save percentage in goal.
Widener, coming off its 12th Middle Atlantic Conference title, will face Springfield in the first round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Lacrosse Tournament on Wednesday.
Game time in Springfield, MA is 4:00 pm.
Widener (10-9) will make its eighth trip to the NCAA Tournament and first since 2008. The Pride have two such victories to their credit, an 11-9 triumph at Kenyon in 2006 and an 8-5 win at Denison in 2007.
Widener claimed its fifth title in six years with Saturday’s 10-8 victory at FDU-Florham. The Pride were making their sixth straight trip to the MAC final, improved to 20-3 in this tournament and 9-1 in their last 10 tournament games on the road.
Junior Nick Fluharty (West Grove, PA) played a huge role by winning 14-of-21 face-offs Saturday and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, taking 60 percent (38-of-63) of the draws in three games. Junior JJ Hoeffler (Cranford, NJ) notched a hat trick in the final.
The sixth-seeded Pride became the lowest seed to win this tournament and the first to do so with three road wins. They previously were the only team to win three games in the tournament, accomplishing this during the 2007 title campaign.
Springfield (12-5) went 7-0 in the Pilgrim League and upended Wheaton, 12-7, on Saturday in the conference final.
Wednesday’s winner advances to play at second-ranked Salisbury in the “Sweet 16” on Saturday.
Widener