Stony Brook hosts Denver, Hofstra faces Maryland in NCAA Tournament

The sixth-ranked Stony Brook men's lacrosse team will host Denver in the first round of the NCAA Division I Tournament at 5 p.m. Saturday at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. Stony Brook is seeded eighth in the 16-team tournament.

Unseeded Hofstra (9-4) will face third-seeded Maryland (11-3) in College Park, Md., at noon Saturday. Both games will be televised on ESPNU.

SBU (12-3), which has won eight straight games, will play in the tournament for the first time since 2002. "In one word, excited; this is just unbelievable," coach Rick Sowell said. "This is really the only goal we had going into the season. To have this opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament is the reward of having a season like we did."

The Seawolves earned an automatic berth in the tournament by beating Albany, 11-7, in the America East Conference championship game Saturday.

Denver (12-4), which is on a nine-game winning streak, defeated the Seawolves, 13-12, on March 20 at Stony Brook. Jordan McBride and Kevin Crowley each scored three goals for Stony Brook, which led 6-1 and brought an 11-7 edge into the fourth period. Mark Matthews and Patrick Rogers each had three goals for Denver against Stony Brook.

McBride has 48 goals and six assists and Crowley has 46 goals and 25 assists this season. Tom Compitello has 33 goals and 35 assists.

Hofstra has beaten tournament-bound teams Johns Hopkins, Army and Delaware. The Pride received a bid for the third consecutive year for the first time since 1973-75. Jamie Lincoln has 33 goals and 20 assists, Stephen Bentz 28 goals and 12 assists and Jay Card 27 goals and 22 assists for the Pride.

Hofstra will face Maryland for the first time since the first round in 2000, when the Terrapins beat the Pride, 14-12. Maryland leads the series 8-1, losing to Hofstra in 1984.

The other six first-round matchups: No. 1 Virginia vs. Mount St. Mary's (Md.), No. 2 Syracuse vs. Army, No. 4 North Carolina vs. Delaware, No. 5 Duke vs. Johns Hopkins, No. 6 Princeton vs. Notre Dame and No. 7 Cornell vs. Loyola (Md.). Syracuse is the two-time defending champion.

Stony Brook will host two NCAA Tournament quarterfinal games on Sunday, May 23. The other two quarterfinals will be at Princeton Stadium on Saturday, May 22. The semifinals and championship game will be at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on May 29 and 31.