2014 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship Bracket Set

On Sunday, the NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Committee announced the 26 team field for this year's NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship. The good news is that Boston College earned the tournament's #7 seed and the right to host the first two rounds of the tournament at the Newton Campus Lacrosse Complex. The bad? BC narrowly missed out on a top six seeding and a tournament first round bye.

First, the good news. The no. 5/6 ranked Eagles will play no. 41 Bryant in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, May 9 at 5 p.m. The winner will play the winner of the first game of the day -- no. 9 Massachusetts / no. 10 Loyola Maryland -- at 2 p.m. The second round game will be on Sunday, May 11 at 1 p.m.

Bryant (15-3) earned a trip to the tournament after capturing the program's first-ever Northeast Conference Tournament title with a 14-6 win over Wagner. BC is 2-0 all-time vs. the Bulldogs, including a 15-2 victory in 2009 and a 20-4 victory in 2010.

Boston College is making its third trip to the National Tournament in program history, and third in the last four seasons. BC is seeking its first ever NCAA Tournament win after falling to Northwestern and Dartmouth by identical 11-8 scores in the first round of the 2011 and 2013 tournaments, respectively.

Now, the bad news. Despite ranking fifth in the nation and setting a program-high for wins in a season (13), BC will need to win two games to make it to the tournament quarterfinals. That's because the Eagles narrowly missed out on earning one of the top six seeds to the tournament and the first round bye that comes with it. Those byes went to Maryland (19-1), Syracuse (18-2), North Carolina (14-4), Florida (17-2), Northwestern (12-6) and Virginia (10-8). Have to think that had BC won just one more game -- starting with a 16-14 road loss to Virginia back on April 10 -- that the Eagles, not the Cavaliers, would have earned the tournament's final first round bye.

As it stands, the Eagles path to the tournament quarterfinals goes through three tournament automatic qualifiers -- Bryant (NEC), UMass (Atlantic 10) and Loyola Maryland (Patriot League). Should BC advance out of the first and second rounds, they'll meet the winner of Syracuse / Stony Brook / Towson.

Complete bracket below. Go Eagles!

2014 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship

Canisius (12-6) vs. Penn (12-4)
#1 Maryland* (19-1) vs. Canisius / Penn winner

Duke (9-7) vs. Stanford (14-4)
#8 Notre Dame* (9-8) vs. High Point (14-5)

Louisville (15-3) vs. Ohio State (13-6)
#5 Northwestern* (12-6) vs. Louisville / Ohio State winner

Denver (18-1) vs. Jacksonville (14-5)
#4 Florida* (17-2) vs. Denver / Jacksonville winner

Georgetown (10-8) vs. Johns Hopkins (15-4)
#3 North Carolina* (14-4) vs. Georgetown / Johns Hopkins winner

Penn State (10-7) vs. Princeton (11-6)
#6 Virginia* (10-8) vs. Penn State / Princeton winner

#7 Boston College* (13-5) vs. Bryant (15-3)
Massachusetts (18-1) vs. Loyola Maryland (14-5)

Stony Brook (16-3) vs. Towson (11-7)
#2 Syracuse* (18-2) vs. Stony Brook / Towson winner

* denotes host