Favorites 7, underdogs 1.
For all of the talk about parity in college lacrosse, seven of the top eight seeds in the NCAA tournament advanced to the quarterfinals, and Maryland's 7-3 decision against No. 7 seed Notre Dame was not considered a shocker in some circles. (More on that later.)
Of the seven programs that have won national championships in the 38-year tournament history, all seven - Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Virginia, North Carolina, Cornell and Maryland - are still alive.
But there were a few close calls. The No. 8 seed Blue Jays didn't get past Brown until senior midfielder Brian Christopher scored his third goal 36 seconds into overtime, No. 6 seed Tar Heels outlasted UMBC, 15-13, and No. 5 seed Cornell finally pulled away from Hofstra toward the end of the third quarter, 11-8.
"Some of them could have gone either way," CBS College Sports analyst and former Syracuse All-America midfielder Paul Carcaterra said. "Even that UMBC-UNC game, in the third quarter, that was anyone's ballgame. The Hopkins game went into overtime. ... Although there weren't upsets, there were really good games that could have gone either way, and it's good for lacrosse."
Here are some observations after the opening round of the tournament:
Notre Dame on the defensive: : The previously undefeated Fighting Irish's loss to the Terps on Sunday revived a discussion of whether the team deserved one of the eight seeds after completing a regular-season schedule that was not considered among the most strenuous in the country.
Notre Dame beat North Carolina on March 8 and Villanova on March 31, but those were the only two tournament teams on their schedule. Coach Kevin Corrigan, whose team will move to the Big East for the 2010 season, defended the schedule.
"I'm not going to beat up our team for being 15-0 against any schedule," he said. "We had a great season, we played really well for a long extended period of time. We didn't play very well today, and therefore we lost."
Bitter's record day: : The Tar Heels' Billy Bitter tied a school record with eight goals against UMBC. Bitter outscored six tournament teams and had the same number of goals as Hofstra did.
"He's an incredible young attackman, and he has the potential to be just as good of a feeder as he is a goal scorer," Carcaterra said of Bitter, who has registered 46 goals and 23 assists.
