NCAA Lacrosse Tournament 2015: Bracket, Schedule, Teams and Preview
The 2015 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament commences this weekend, where a balanced field looks to block Duke from capturing a third straight title.
Heading into the tournament, which slims down to 16 teams following two play-in games, the Blue Devils sport a No. 5 seed, placed behind three ACC foes. Yet the bracket, which is available on NCAA.com, features no standout favorites towering above the fray.
Don't be surprised if upsets permeate the Round 1 picture. In a grouping where nobody holds fewer than two losses, anything can happen.
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| No. 8 Cornell vs. Albany | 12 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 6 Maryland vs. Yale | 2:30 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 1 Notre Dame vs. Towson/High Point | 5 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 5 Duke vs. Ohio State | 7:30 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 7 Virginia vs. John Hopkins | 1 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 4 Denver vs. Brown | 3 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 3 North Carolina vs. Colgate | 5:15 p.m. | ESPNU |
| No. 2 Syracuse vs. Marist/Bryant | 7:30 p.m. | ESPNU |
| Second Round | May 16-17 |
| Semifinals | May 23 |
| Championship | May 25 |
Preview
The only non-ACC representative infiltrating with a top-four seed, via NCAA Lacrosse, Denver crashes the party in pursuit of its first championship appearance.
Sporting an 11-2 record and the NCAA's second-best scoring margin, the Pioneers will take one more stab at breaking the hump after earning six consecutive tournament bids, reaching the semifinals three times.
In order to survive their quadrant, they'd have to conquer either Duke or Ohio State, which beat them in March. Yet it won't matter unless they top Brown, which ranks fifth in scoring offense.
Head coach Bill Tierney assured The Denver Post's Mike Chambers that Denver won't overlook its first-round opposition:
"We can't do anything but concentrate on Brown, that's for sure. They're kind of a relentless offensive team; they will play us very much like Ohio State. They're going to take a lot of shots. It's going to be a different game for us. But they really are an explosive group, and it's so important that we don't think past them.
"
Planning past Brown would prove a massive oversight with NCAA leading scorer Dylan Molloy fueling the Bears offense. The 225-pound attacker, who compiled 59 scores and a team-high 30 assists, explained how he's made massive strides to American Sports Network's Keith Chartrand.
“I don’t think I have a very hard shot but I’m able to body in and get close to the goal every time,” Molloy said. “I hide my stick really well. At the last second after a dodge, I fake out the goalie or put it in when he is not expecting it off the dodge.”
In what's shaping up to be the toughest quarter of the bracket, Denver won't have an easy path to the Final Four.
Every NCAA tournament features a dangerous small-conference sleeper looming in the shadows. This year, American East champions Albany boast a threat to the heavy hitters.
Strength of schedule cost it a top-eight seed, but Albany registered Division I's largest goal differential by a sizable margin, averaging a rate over three scores higher than top-ranked Notre Dame:
| 1 | Albany | 7.65 |
| 2 | Denver | 5.73 |
| 3 | Syracuse | 5.21 |
| 4 | North Carolina | 4.73 |
| 5 | Notre Dame | 4.50 |
An offense that generates 17.41 goals per contest deserves most of the credit. At the forefront of its dominant attack, Seth Oakes and Connor Fields rank fourth and fifth, respectively, with 3.40 and 3.29 goals per game. Neither, however, signifies the Great Danes' greatest weapon.
Senior Lyle Thompson enters the tournament with 48 goals and 59 assists, producing five scores in both conference tournament bouts. That gives last year's co-Tewaaraton winner consecutive 100-point seasons, and he has his club firing on all cylinders with an eight-game winning streak.
Yet Albany suffered one of its two losses to Cornell, its Round 1 opponent. The Ivy League champions must again control faceoffs, a glaring weakness illuminated when Albany faces tougher competition. While the Great Danes recorded a 47.6 faceoff winning percentage, the Big Red posted a fourth-best 64.8 percent clip.
With the winner likely competing for a chance to fight the Fighting Irish, their Saturday showdown offers the most opening-round intrigue.
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