To put it in perspective, Bryant is only in its sixth season as a D-I school in men’s lacrosse, while Syracuse entered 2014 as an 11-time national champion with 34 NCAA Tournament appearances. As far as upsets go, this is to D-I lacrosse as Rhode Island beating perennial powerhouse Kansas in the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament was to men’s basketball. Surprising as it might’ve been, Bryant set the stage all season long for a deep run in this year’s tournament. The Bulldogs were ranked as high as 11th in the national poll during the regular season and entered the NCAAs at No. 19 after winning their third consecutive Northeast Conference championship. They finished 4-0 against this year’s NCAA field, beating Drexel, Albany, Richmond and Siena, and, most importantly, are coached by Mike Pressler, the former Duke University coach who led the Blue Devils to 10 tournament appearances and reached the 2005 national title game. The Bulldogs will play seventh-seeded Maryland next Sunday in the quarterfinals with a trip to the national semifinals on the line. Bryant has enjoyed a successful spring in its second season of D-I eligibility. The women’s lacrosse team appeared in the NCAAs for the first time, losing its opening-round game to Boston College after winning the NEC for the first time in school history. The men’s tennis and golf teams also won conference titles to earn NCAA Tournament bids for the first time in school history while the softball team won the NEC tournament and earned a historic trip to the NCAAs, where it’ll face defending national champion Oklahoma next Friday. The baseball team, which won the regular-season NEC title for third consecutive season, will look to become Bryant’s sixth conference champion of the spring when the NEC Tournament begins next week in Connecticut. |
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