Virginia is 2 seed in NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament; Maryland is 4

The No. 1 seed on the men’s side went to Duke, the ACC champion, which defeated the Cavaliers twice in the regular season. Notre Dame is the No. 3 seed.

“The three of us certainly have proven ourselves to be really, really strong teams this year,” Virginia Coach Lars Tiffany said of the three ACC schools that are the top seeds.

The Cavaliers (11-3) will host Richmond (11-4) at noon Saturday in Charlottesville (ESPNU). Virginia scored a 25-8 win over the Spiders on March 4 at Klöckner Stadium.

The Terps (10-5) will host Army (12-3), the Patriot League champion, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU).

“Looking forward to kind of having another full week to prep for our next opponent,” Maryland’s Brett Makar said. “Being able to kind of button some things up, and looking forward to trying to get some momentum again and heat up.”

Georgetown (12-3), winner of 12 consecutive games, will host Ivy League runner-up Yale (9-5) at 5 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU).

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In the NCAA women’s field of 29, Maryland (14-6) earned an at-large bid after losing to Northwestern, 14-9, on Saturday in the Big Ten tournament title game. The Terps will face Drexel (12-5) at 5 p.m. Friday in Harrisonburg, Va. (ESPN Plus).

Maryland, which is making its 33rd straight NCAA appearance, has won 14 national championships and last season reached its 28th Final Four.

The Virginia women (11-6) extended their run of consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament to 27 by receiving an at-large berth. They will play Albany (12-6), the America East champion, at 8 p.m. Friday in Denver.

The top three seeds in the women’s tournament are Northwestern, Syracuse and Boston College.

Making their 42nd appearance in the NCAA tournament, the Cavaliers men enter the postseason on a three-game winning streak, most recently dispatching then-No. 1 Notre Dame, 12-8, on April 30 in Charlottesville behind four goals by Xander Dickson (56 goals, 18 assists). The redshirt senior is tied with Doug Knight for the Cavaliers’ single-season goals record and is part of the most prolific attack in the country, joining redshirt junior Connor Shellenberger (19 goals, 43 assists) and senior Payton Cormier (43 goals, 11 assists).

That firepower — along with sound defense and goalkeeper Matthew Nunes — has the Cavaliers aiming for a third national championship since 2019.

“We’ve been talking the past few weeks about…