NCAA Lacrosse Tournament 2017: Quarterfinal Bracket, Schedule, Round 1 Results
The first round of the 2017 Division I men's lacrosse tournament continued Sunday, with two more teams set to earn a berth in the quarterfinals.
Saturday's action featured a pair of upsets, with the Towson Tigers defeating the seventh-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions and the Duke Blue Devils eliminating the No. 6 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.
Last year's national runners-up, the Maryland Terrapins, were among those opening their tournament account Sunday.
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First-Round Results
| Marquette vs. No. 4 Notre Dame | Notre Dame, 15-9 |
| Bryant vs. No. 1 Maryland | Maryland, 13-10 |
| Loyola (Md.) vs. No. 3 Ohio State | Ohio State, 7-4 |
| Yale vs. No. 2 Syracuse | Syracuse, 11-10 |
Quarterfinals Schedule
| Saturday, May 20 | Ohio State vs. Duke | TBA | ESPNU |
| Saturday, May 20 | Denver vs. Notre Dame | TBA | ESPNU |
| Sunday, May 21 | Maryland vs. Albany | TBA | ESPN2 |
| Sunday, May 21 | Syracuse vs. Towson | TBA | ESPN2 |
Full tournament bracket is available on NCAA.com.
Sunday Recap
Notre Dame 15, Marquette 9
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish encountered few problems en route to a 15-9 victory over the Marquette Golden Eagles Sunday at home.
Inside the first three minutes of the game, Brendan Gleason and Brendan Collins gave the Fighting Irish a 2-0 lead. With two more goals, Notre Dame's advantage swelled to 4-1 early in the second quarter.
Then, Marquette responded with three unanswered goals from Andy DeMichiei, Joseph Dunn and Ryan McNamara to tie the game with six minutes, 52 seconds left in the half.
But Gleason restored the Fighting Irish's lead at the 5:22 mark, and Notre Dame added two more before halftime. NCAA Lacrosse shared a replay of Mikey Wynne's tally with 10 seconds left in the first half to make it a 7-4 game:
In the second half, Marquette never trimmed the deficit to fewer than three goals.
It was an uncharacteristically poor defensive performance from the Golden Eagles, who had allowed an average of 8.93 goals a game (tied for 15th in the country).
Notre Dame, which dropped its previous two games entering the NCAA tournament, will hope to repeat its offensive outburst in the quarterfinals against the Denver Pioneers.
Maryland 13, Bryant 10
Maryland advanced to the quarterfinals, but not before the Bryant Bulldogs made a late charge in the fourth quarter.
The Terrapins jumped on Bryant early, with Dylan Maltz putting them ahead 5-2 at the 12:11 mark of the second quarter. The Bulldogs fought back but still trailed 6-4 at halftime.
Maryland then outscored Bryant 5-1 in the third quarter to take a commanding 11-5 advantage. All five of Maryland's goals came in the final 7:15 of the quarter. NCAA Lacrosse showed a second look at Matt Rambo's goal, which put the Terps ahead 10-4:
The Terrapins' edge swelled to eight goals courtesy of Tim Rotanz and Adam DiMillo. Bryant then launched a furious comeback—spearheaded by Tucker James and Cam Ziegler—to try to tie the game.
James scored twice in less than a minute to trim the gap to six goals, 13-7, with 6:43 remaining. Ziegler then delivered two goals to make things interesting. But Bryant ran out of gas, scoring just once more in the final 2:30 to suffer the defeat.
Ohio State 7, Loyola (Md.) 4
After two high-scoring affairs earlier in the day, goals came at a premium for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds. The Buckeyes prevailed 7-4.
Ohio State effectively sealed the victory in a tightly contested third quarter.
The Buckeyes entered the second half up 3-2. Eric Fannell put OSU ahead 4-2, but Pat Spencer quickly canceled out the goal a little over two minutes later. The two teams exchanged goals again in a roughly 40-second span, with Zack Sirico bringing Loyola to within a goal, 5-4, with 8:48 left in the quarter.
Ohio State's defense held firm for the remainder of the quarter, which stopped the Greyhounds' momentum completely. Tre Leclaire also scored Ohio State's sixth goal at the 4:11 mark, giving the Buckeyes' some much-needed breathing room.
Jack Jasinski's goal with nine seconds left in the game was the cherry on top.
Syracuse 11, Yale 10
In the most dramatic result of the day, Stephen Rehfuss' goal with 2:09 left in regulation sealed passage to the quarterfinals for the Syracuse Orange, who beat the Yale Bulldogs 11-10.
Syracuse.com's Brent Axe noted how the Orange have been cardiac kids this season:
Yale led 6-4 at halftime, and Jackson Morrill put the Bulldogs ahead 7-4 in the third quarter. At the very least, Yale looked poised to head into the final frame with the lead after Matt Gaudet's goal made the score 8-6 in favor of the Bulldogs with 4:28 remaining in the third.
But over the final 3:16, Syracuse exploded for three goals from Nick Mariano, Jordan Evans and Jamie Trimboli to move ahead 9-8.
Ben Reeves was not to be deterred, though, after Ryan Simmons added another goal to Syracuse's account. The junior scored his 41st and 42nd goals of the season to tie the game with a little over six minutes left.
That set the stage for Rehfuss' heroics.
Orange fans will obviously be happy to see the team through to the quarterfinals, but their hearts may not be able to take too many more close finishes, especially considering four of Syracuse's last five games were decided by one goal.
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