It’s the same news that has appeared at this point in May since 2013: Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse are the champions of the America East and will get the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The Seawolves came into Saturday’s America East Championship hosting UAlbany at LaValle Stadium, knowing that that have most likely secured an at-large bid at the very least due to their success all season and current ranking in all lacrosse polls. However, to gain a national seed that can only be given to what is considered by experts to be the best in the nation, they needed to have an impressive-enough win against the Great Danes to once again get that national seed.
Eventually, the mission to get the national seed proved to be a success after they held on to a 16-9 win over UAlbany, effectively ending their season and gaining the ultimate triple sweep on the season. As part of the postseason awards at the conclusion of the championship, Seawolves graduate midfielder Ally Kennedy was named the Tournament MOP after she broke the tournament record for most goals in the postseason, posting a career-high 7 over UMBC and 5 over UAlbany, combining for 12. She, along with teammates Taryn Ohlmiller, Kaeli Huff, and Kameron Halsall were also named to the America East All-Tournament team.
In front of family and Athletics staff at IFCU arena last night, the team were sitting on the court and watched the joint Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse selection show featured on ESPNU last night. They eventually learned that they were chosen as the #8 seed, their second in program history and their 4th national seed ever, giving them home-field advantage for at least the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Their field also consists of CAA foes Drexel Dragons and Towson Tigers, and Big Ten foe Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The Seawolves drew the Tigers and will host them at LaValle Stadium on Friday at noon. The team already played at Towson early this season on March 7 and secured a close win 10-8, maintaining their perfect record over Towson with a 7-0 all-time record as they will now work for their 8th-straight win over the Tigers. Towson was also Stony Brook’s first-ever opponent in tournament history in 2013 when both teams played in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament in Maryland’s field at College Park.
The winner of Friday’s noon matchup will face the winner of Drexel and Rutgers, who play each other at 4pm that same day. The winner of the second round game on Sunday will draw the winner of #1-seed North Carolina and James Madison/Johns Hopkins.
Zachary Wilson 