Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/10/21 – From Press Releases
The Drexel men’s lacrosse team will face the University of Notre Dame in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships. The Dragons, winners of the Colonial Athletic Association, will travel to Denver to face the Fighting Irish. The game can be seen live on ESPNU at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 15.
Drexel enters the game with a 10-2 record. Brian Voelker’s has won nine-straight games, which ties the school record for consecutive victories. The Dragons won the CAA Championship on Saturday with a 15-11 victory at Hofstra.
Drexel raced out to a 10-1 lead and won going away for its second CAA title. Graduate student Reid Bowering was named the CAA Championship Most Outstanding Player.
Lehigh to meet Rutgers in Charlottesville
Standing 10-1 overall, the Lehigh men’s lacrosse team has earned the No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face Rutgers in the First Round at UVA’s Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia. The contest is set for Saturday, May 15 at 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The Mountain Hawks earned the Patriot League’s Automatic Qualifier Sunday morning when Loyola withdrew from the Championship Game cancelled due to a positive COVID-19 test from its Tier 1 testing pool.
“This is such an interesting matchup from so many different perspectives,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “This is actually a team that we as a team have been rooting for the entire year. And the reason why is because there’s a lot of familiarity. Colin Kirst, who played for us, is now a fifth-year at Rutgers and he’s having an unbelievable year. We’ve been cheering for Colin from here in Bethlehem. His brother Connor, who was at Villanova, joined him at Rutgers. And obviously, we have Cole on our team.
“I’ve been texting with their mother for the last half hour. Their reactions are all over the map – from excitement to nerves. It’ll be a pretty cool spectacle to have those three brothers on the same field together in the NCAA Tournament.”
This marks Lehigh’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2013 and third in program history. In 2012, the Mountain Hawks were the No. 7 seed and hosted Maryland. A year later, they were unseeded and traveled to fifth-seeded North Carolina. Lehigh is 0-2 in those games, but did lose a close 10-9 final vs. the Terps that came down to the final seconds.
This year’s NCAA Tournament First Round games will be held at four different locations – Maryland (College Park), Virginia (Charlottesville), North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and Denver.
The 2021 Mountain Hawks own the nation’s second-best winning percentage at 90.9. They began the season 9-0, tying a program record win streak within a season (set in 2012). Dating back to 2020, Lehigh’s 13-game overall winning streak marked a program record (and was the longest streak in the nation until the Mountain Hawks’ lone defeat of the season on May 1). This season, Lehigh has won a program-record eight Patriot League games while finishing the regular season (and postseason) undefeated against league opponents for the first time since 2013 and just second time in program history.
The Mountain Hawks and Scarlet Knights last played in 2019, a 13-10 Lehigh victory which saw Tommy Schelling score the go-ahead goal with 2:19 remaining. The year prior, Rutgers captured a slim 8-7 final in Bethlehem.
Cabrini to host Gove City Saturday in D3 tourney
The defending champion Cabrini Cavaliers will host Grove City in the first round of the NCAA Division III championships Saturday at 3 p.m. The game will be part of a doubleheader with Salisbury and SUNY-Poly playing at noon; the winners meet Sunday at Cabrini at a time to be determined.
Both Cabrini and Grove City earned automatic berths in this year’s 31-team national tournament by winning their respective conference tournaments. Grove City (11-1) won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title Saturday night with a 19-6 home victory over Westminster. Cabrini (10-2) defeated visiting Neumann, 19-5, in the Atlantic East Conference Tournament championship game.
Grove City will be making its second all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament. In 2019, Grove City fell to Maritime (N.Y.) in the first round, 14-13, in overtime at Salisbury, Md.
Cabrini will make its 19th consecutive appearance in the national tournament. The Cavaliers won the 2019 national title by defeating Amherst, 16-12. Cabrini is 19-17 all-time in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
This will be the first meeting between the programs. The winner of the Grove City-Cabrini game will play either Salisbury or S.U.N.Y.-Poly (N.Y.). in Sunday’s second round. The Salisbury-Poly game will also be held Saturday.