The NCAA Men's Lacrosse Selection Committee has announced a regular-season top 10 ranking.
For the first time in history, the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Committee has announced a regular season top 10 national ranking.
| Selection Committee's Top 10 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Notre Dame (9-1) |
| 2 | North Carolina (12-2) |
| 3 | Syracuse (9-2) |
| 4 | Maryland (12-1) |
| 5 | Denver (10-2) |
| 6 | Duke (10-4) |
| 7 | Virginia (9-4) |
| 8 | Yale (9-3) |
| 9 | Albany (NY) (11-2) |
| 10 | Cornell (9-4) |
Using the selection criteria and results through games as of April 19, the University of Notre Dame is the top ranked team in the nation with a 9-1 record. They are followed by fellow Atlantic Coast Conference members University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (12-2) and Syracuse University (9-2) at second and third, respectively. Rounding out the top five are the University of Maryland, College Park (12-1), out of the Big Ten Conference, and the University of Denver (10-2) from the Big East Conference at fourth and fifth.
The remainder of the top 10 includes two-time defending NCAA champion Duke University (10-4) at sixth, fellow ACC member, University of Virginia, seventh, (9-4) and Yale University, of the Ivy League, (9-3) at eighth. Albany (New York) (11-2), the America East Conference front-runner is No. 9, and Ivy League member Cornell University (9-4) is 10th.
“This was a useful exercise for the committee,” said Heather Lyke, chair of the Division I Men’s Lacrosse Committee and Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Eastern Michigan University. “There is a lot of lacrosse still to be played so things may change, but this enabled us to have very similar conversations to the ones we will be having in two weeks on selection weekend. The parity in men’s lacrosse is significant and will make those selections challenging. The national committee would like to especially thank the Regional Advisory Committee members for their input regarding the rankings.”
The 18-team field, which will consist of the 10 conference automatic qualifiers and eight at-large teams, will be announced May 3 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Four teams will participate in two play-in games which will be held May 6 on campus sites. The two winners of the play-in games will join the 14 other selected teams in first round games, which will be held May 9 and 10 on eight campus sites. The first round winners will play at the quarterfinal sites, which will be held May 16 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver and May 17 at Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. The semifinals and final will be played May 23 and 25 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Tickets for the 2015 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships are available via NCAA.com/Lacrosse.
