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Princeton University Athletics
Women's Lacrosse to Face Virginia in NCAA First Round Game
May 08, 2006 | Women's Lacrosse
May 8, 2006
The Princeton women's lacrosse team will face one of its biggest rivals, not to mention a team ranked No. 2 in the country in both major polls, Sunday afternoon when the Tigers visit Virginia for an NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship first round game.
Game time is 1 p.m. on Sunday at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. Seedings for the 16-team NCAA championship, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2006, were announced Monday night.
Princeton (11-5), which earned the Ivy League's automatic NCAA tournament berth, is unseeded, while Virginia (14-3), the ACC champions, is the tournament's No. 2 seed.
The teams met during the regular season, March 25 at Princeton's Class of 1952 Stadium, with Virginia using a dominating second half to pull away for a 16-3 victory over the Tigers. The win was the third straight for the Cavaliers in the series after Princeton had won two straight before that.
"We get the opportunity to play a team we've seen in the regular season and hopefully get a chance to have a better performance against them," said Princeton head coach Chris Sailer, who has now led the Tigers to nine straight NCAA tournament appearances. "It's an exciting matchup between two teams with a lot of history of success in the tournament."
Princeton and Virginia met in the NCAA championship game in both 2003 and 2004, with the Tigers winning the 2003 game by an 8-7 score in overtime in Syracuse and the Cavaliers winning the 2004 title game by a 10-4 score at Princeton Stadium.
The teams have met six times in NCAA tournament play, with each team winning three of those games. Princeton won a first round game in 1989, a semifinal game in 1994 and the 2003 national title game; Virginia won the 1993 national title game, a 1998 quarterfinal game and the 2004 title game.
Princeton has never failed to reach the quarterfinal round in its previous 15 NCAA tournament appearances. The Tigers are playing on the road in their initial NCAA tournament game for the first time since the field expanded to 16 teams in 2001. Princeton (27) and Virginia (25) rank second and third, respectively, in all-time games won in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers are making their 16th overall appearance and their ninth straight; the Cavaliers are making their 11th straight appearance and 21st overall.
Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for youths 18 and under and students of participating schools with a student ID. Tickets can be purchased in person at Bryant Hall ticket office or by calling the Ticket Office at 800/542-8821. Tickets can also be purchased online at virginiasports.com. The Ticket Office encourages all fans to purchase and pick up their tickets in advance to avoid long ticket sales and Will Call lines.
Eight first-round games will be played at campus sites on Sun., May 14, with the first round winners advancing to the quarterfinal round on Sat., May 20. The winner of the Virginia-Princeton game will play the winner of the Dartmouth-Boston University game in the quarterfinals.
Duke earned the top seed in the NCAA championship, while Georgetown was seeded third and Northwestern fourth. North Carolina, Notre Dame, Dartmouth and James Madison were the other seeded teams.
The four quarterfinal winners travel to Boston University's Nickerson Field May 26 and 28 for the national semifinals and final.
The complete tournament bracket is available at www.ncaasports.com.
2006 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship
Sun., May 14 First Round
Holy Cross at No. 1 Duke
Princeton at No. 2 Virginia
No. 3 Georgetown at Monmouth
Stanford at No. 4 Northwestern
Maryland at No. 5 North Carolina
Cornell at No. 6 Notre Dame
Boston University at No. 7 Dartmouth
Richmond at No. 8 James Madison
Sat., May 20 Quarterfinals at campus sites
Duke/Holy Cross winner vs. JMU/Richmond winner
Virginia/Princeton winner vs. Dartmouth/BU winner
Georgetown/Monmouth winner vs. Notre Dame/Cornell winner
Northwestern/Stanford winner vs. UNC/Maryland winner
Fri., May 26 at Boston University
Semifinals
Sun., May 28 at Boston University
Championship Game