NCAA Lacrosse Tournament 2015: Bracket, schedule and scores

Notre Dame and Syracuse have dominated the discussion heading into the 2015 NCAA Division I lacrosse tournament. Notre Dame holds the No. 1 seed, and started its run against unseeded Towson on Saturday, May 9. The Fighting Irish went 10-2 over the course of the regular season, and they’re one of the smart picks to win it all. Syracuse is No. 2 and kicked off its tournament with a win against Marist.

Notre Dame will be hoping things go better than they did in the ACC Tournament in April. It was the top seed there, but fell to Duke in the semifinal opener. The Blue Devils dominated the Irish from start to finish, winning 13-8. Luckily for the Irish, the Duke has already gone down in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Ohio State in the opening round.

Below, we’ve got full bracket, format and schedule information, which will be updated over the course of the tournament.

The format the NCAA employs for the lacrosse tournament is slightly different from one you might be used to from the men’s basketball tournament. It seeds the top eight teams, but aligns the remaining eights teams under different criteria. A committee handles this, with the big focus being on geography and travel needed. Getting in as few flights as possible for the teams involved is a big priority to save on cost and travel. Once they figure out the matchups, a standard bracket format is employed in which all seeds play in the opening round.

1. No. 1 Notre Dame
2. No. 2 Syracuse
3. No. 3 North Carolina
4. No. 4 Denver
5. No. 5 Duke
6. No. 6 Maryland
7. No. 7 Virginia
8. No. 8 Cornell
9. Albany
10. Johns Hopkins
11. Yale
12. Ohio State
13. Brown
14. Colgate
15. Marist
16. Towson

You can find a full bracket at the NCAA’s website here.

Saturday, May 9

Game 1: Albany 19, No. 8 Cornell 10
Game 2: No. 6 Maryland 8, Yale 7
Game 3: No. 1 Notre Dame 12, Towson 10
Game 4: Ohio State 16, No. 5 Duke 11

Sunday, May 10

Game 5: Johns Hopkins 19, No. 7 Virginia 7
Game 6: No. 4 Denver 15, Brown 9
Game 7: No. 3 North Carolina 19, Colgate, 12
Game 8: No. 2 Syracuse 20, Marist 8

Saturday, May 16

Game 9: No. 1 Notre Dame 14, Albany 10
Game 10: No. 4 Denver 15, Ohio State 13

Sunday, May 17

Game 11: Johns Hopkins 16, No. 2 Syracuse 15
Game 12: No. 6 Maryland 14, No. 3 North Carolina 7

Saturday, May 23

Game 13: No. 4 Denver 11, No. 1 Notre Dame 10 (OT) (recap)
Game 14: No. 6 Maryland 12, Johns Hopkins 11 (recap)

Monday, May 25

Game 15 (National Championship): No. 4 Denver 10, No. 6 Maryland 5 (recap)