Ready to get started on Sunday?
On Sunday night, the NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Committee released their selections for the 2024 NCAA Tournament, and the Boston College Eagles found themselves seeded as the #2 overall team in the nation. As such, Boston College will be hosting all of their games through the quarterfinals if they make it that far.
First up on the slate, BC will host an octo-final game on Sunday May 12th against the winner of Princeton vs. Drexel. Princeton is ranked 16th in the nation, while Drexel just barely squeaked into the tournament, so the Eagles should be fairly heavy favorites no matter who they face. While Princeton has had some solid wins throughout the year, they’ve also lost almost all of their games against Boston College’s peers in the national rankings, like their losses to #11 Maryland, #7 Loyola, #9 Florida, #6 Virginia, and then a split with #10 Penn.
If Boston College advances to the quarterfinals, they will host another game on Thursday May 16th, this time likely against either #4 Notre Dame or #5 Michigan. The committee was not kind to the Eagles with this grouping, as Notre Dame was docked down to a #7 overall seed in the tournament and Michigan was punished for their OT loss to #12 Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten tournament. But both of these squads are quite formidable. Notre Dame beat BC in the regular season and played them closely in the ACC tournament, while Michigan has regular season victories over #10 Penn, #12 Johns Hopkins, #13 Denver, #15 Penn State, #21 USC, #24 Colorado, and a very close 1-goal loss to #1 Northwestern. I doubt they will breeze by this match-up like they did in their 20-6 victory over Notre Dame in last year’s quarterfinal.
If BC makes it past the quarterfinal game, they will go to their seventh-straight Final Four, which would be a remarkable feat. The likely opponent they would match-up against there would be another familiar ACC foe in #3 Syracuse, who Boston College has defeated twice already this season, including in the ACC title game.
And then, of course, the national title game could feature a rematch of last season’s title game. Defending national champion Northwestern is once again the #1 overall seed in the tournament. This Boston College team would love to get another crack at the Wildcats after their loss against them in last season’s national championship. But both teams have a long road to get there, and anything can happen! You can view the full bracket here.