Delaware Travels to #19 UMass Friday Night for Pivotal CAA Matchup in Regular Season Finale
April 28, 2011
File Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell
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• NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware men’s lacrosse squad knows it will be playing in next week’s Colonial Athletic Association semifinals. The question that remains is who and where will they play?
Some of those questions will be answered Friday night when the Blue Hens, looking to bounce back from a tough loss Saturday night, travel to Amherst, Mass. to take on the No. 19 ranked Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts at 7 p.m.
The defending CAA champion Blue Hens (9-4, 4-1 CAA), currently tied for the CAA lead with Hofstra and Penn State, will be looking to bounce back from a 13-3 loss to Penn State Saturday at Delaware Stadium. The Minutemen (8-4, 3-2 CAA) are coming off a 14-5 loss to Hofstra Saturday but had won their previous three games.
If Delaware defeats UMass, the Hens will host a CAA semifinal game next Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at Delaware Stadium. If Penn State defeats Hofstra Saturday, the Hens would be the No. 2 seed and host No. 3 Hofstra for the semifinals. If Hofstra defeats Penn State, Delaware would host No. 4 seed UMass and earn the league’s No. 1 seed and homefield advantage for the playoffs. The semifinals will meet in the CAA Championship Game on Saturday, May 7, at the site of the highest remaining seed.
Should Delaware fall to UMass Friday, the Hens would be the No. 4 seed and take to the road for the CAA semifinals, traveling to the winner of Saturday’s Hofstra-Penn State game.
Delaware and Massachusetts have met just 11 times with the Minutemen holding a 7-3 advantage, but the Blue Hens won 9-6 last year at Delaware Stadium to start a five-game win streak that propelled them to the CAA Tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Delaware dropped out of the Top 20 rankings for the first time since March 21 this week as the Hens received votes in both the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll but did not rank among the top 20.
In the USILA poll, Notre Dame remained at No. 1 by earning all 10 first place votes. The Irish were followed by Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Syracuse, Maryland, Denver, Duke, Hofstra, North Carolina, Villanova, Virginia, Bucknell, Penn, Stony Brook, Yale, Colgate, Army, Loyola, Massachusetts, and Penn State. Delaware, Drexel, Harvard, and Siena also earned votes.
In the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll, Notre Dame took the top spot with 12 first place votes followed by Cornell (2), Johns Hopkins (1), Syracuse, Denver, Maryland, Hofstra, Duke, Villanova, North Carolina, Virginia, Bucknell, Stony Brook, Yale, Penn, Army, Loyola, Penn State, Colgate, and Massachusetts. Harvard, Delaware, Drexel, Siena, UMBC, and Georgetown also received votes.
