INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For just the second time in program history, the nationally ranked No. 25 Saint Anselm College women's lacrosse team has earned a spot in the NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship, announced on Sunday night during the NCAA Selection Show. It is the first NCAA postseason appearance for the Hawks since 2014, their only other time qualifying.
Saint Anselm (12-6) secured the No. 5 seed in the East Region with an at-large bid and will take on No. 4 seed New Haven (12-5) in the NCAA First Round. That game will be hosted by No. 1 seed Adelphi (16-3),
who won the Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) Championship over the weekend and received an automatic bid, on Thursday, May 8th at 3:00 p.m. in Garden City, N.Y.
The winner of that opening round matchup between the Hawks and Chargers will take on the Panthers, who clinched a First Round bye, in the Second Round on Saturday, May 10th at 3:00 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket in the East Region, NE10 Runner-Up Pace (16-4) earned the No. 2 seed. They will host the winner of No. 3 seed Dominican (18-1) and No. 6 seed Molloy (10-8) in the Second Round. Dominican was an automatic qualifier who won the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship, while Molloy also received an automatic bid after winning the East Coast Conference (ECC) Championship.
This year, 24 teams qualified for the NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship with six teams in each of the four regions (Atlantic, East, Midwest, South). All First Round games will be played on Thursday, May 8th at 3:00 p.m. and will be hosted by one of the top two seeds from each region.
After the Second Round, the highest remaining seeds will host the Quarterfinals on Saturday, May 17th. The Semifinals and National Championship Game will take place on Thursday, May 22nd and Saturday, May 24th, respectively. Those games will be played at Kerr Stadium in Salem, Va.
Saint Anselm and New Haven will meet each other for the first time ever in the NCAA tournament and the second time this season. Saint Anselm, who was the No. 5 seed and a Semifinalist in the NE10 Championship,
fell to New Haven in the regular season, 17-6.
The Chargers, the No. 3 seed in the NE10 postseason,
were upset in the Quarterfinals by No. 6 Assumption. The Hawks
upset No. 4 seed Bentley in the NE10 Quartefinals before
falling to top-seed Pace in the Semifinals by just a goal. All-time, Saint Anselm is 7-19 in the series against New Haven that began in 2001.
Saint Anselm has a 12-6 record this season, including a 6-4 mark in NE10 play, and was ranked No. 25 in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division II National Poll. The three other NE10 institutions that qualified for this year's NCAA Tournament were also ranked, with Pace at No. 8, Adelphi at No. 10, and New Haven at No. 17.
This season, the Hawks
placed seven student-athletes on NE10 All-Conference teams and had two major award winners. Senior
Elizabeth Driscoll (Marblehead, Mass.) claimed her second NE10 Goalkeeper of the Year award in the last three years, and freshman
Ayla McDermod (Hanover, Mass.) became the first NE10 Rookie of the Year for the Hawks since 2012.
Driscoll also earned a spot on the All-NE10 First Team. Senior
Abigail Christmas (Elmira, N.Y.), junior
Elyse Scales (Walpole, Mass.), and sophomores
Alyssa Hill (Brookline, N.H.) and
Lucy Mawn (Harwich, Mass.) were selected to the All-NE10 Second Team, and senior
Samantha Rivet (Sudbury, Mass.) joined McDermod as a Third Team pick.
Saint Anselm last qualified for the NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship in 2014, where they fell to Adelphi in the First Round, 20-6. That was the only other NCAA postseason appearance for the Hawks in program history.
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