Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lacrosse to Play at Virginia in NCAA Tournament
5/8/2011 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
May 8, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell men's lacrosse team will be headed south for its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years, as the Bison will travel to Charlottesville, Va., to face the seventh-seeded Virginia Cavaliers in a first-round game on Sunday, May 15 at 3 p.m. The contest will be televised live on ESPNU. Bucknell, 14-2 overall and ranked 11th nationally, received an automatic bid to the tournament as the champion of the Patriot League, while No. 9 Virginia (9-5) was an at-large selection in the 16-team field.
The Bison enter the NCAA Tournament on an eight-game winning streak after sweeping Lehigh and Colgate in the Patriot League Tournament last weekend. Virginia last played on Apr. 30, routing No. 13 Penn at home, 11-2. The Bucknell-Virginia winner will take on the Cornell-Hartford winner in the quarterfinals in Hempstead, N.Y., on May 21.
This is Bucknell's second NCAA Tournament appearance. The other came in 2001, a 12-7 loss to fourth-seeded Notre Dame at West Point, N.Y. By contrast, this will be Virginia's 34th NCAA showing, second-most in the nation behind only Johns Hopkins.
Bucknell and Virginia have officially met just twice previously, both resulting in convincing wins by the Cavaliers more than a decade ago. Virginia won 24-4 in Lewisburg in 1997 and 27-5 in Charlottesville in 1998 in what remains Bucknell's most one-sided loss in program history. Despite the gap in the series between the two teams, the Bison will be familiar with their surroundings next week, as they played at Virginia in a preseason scrimmage game back on Feb. 12.
Virginia is led offensively by All-America attackman Steele Stanwick with 49 points on 23 goals and 26 assists, while Chris Bocklet has a team-high 33 goals, 11 of them coming in man-up situations. It also has an All-America goalie in senior Adam Ghitelman, who has a career record of 46-11. The Cavaliers average 12.6 goals per game and allow 9.8, and they win 50.7 percent of their faceoffs. Virginia's only losses this season have come against Duke (twice), Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Syracuse, all NCAA Tournament teams.
Syracuse was seeded No. 1 in the tournament and will face Siena in the first round. Other first-round matchups include Hartford at No. 2 Cornell, Hofstra at No. 3 Johns Hopkins, Penn at No. 4 Notre Dame, Delaware at No. 5 Duke, Villanova at No. 6 Denver and Maryland at No. 8 North Carolina. Bucknell is 2-1 against the tournament field, with wins over Villanova and Hartford and a loss to Penn.
For ticket information, please call the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at 800-542-8821 or visit VirginiaSports.com after 9 a.m. on Monday.
