Congratulations are in order to the Boston College club men's lacrosse team. Despite falling to New Hampshire in the first round of the Pioneer Collegiate Lacrosse League (PCLL) Tournament, the Eagles finished the year with a 10-3 record and a share of the PCLL regular season title.
For their efforts, Boston College has earned a berth to next week's 2014 MCLA National Championship.
For the second straight year, the Eagles find themselves in the championship's no. 8 vs. no 9. game as the tournament's eight seed. Boston College will face no. 9 seed Westminster College (Utah) of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference.
Men's club lax is a strange mix of schools from major conferences and ones, with all due respect, you've probably never heard of. Westminster College falls into the second category. The small private school based in Salt Lake City boasts an enrollment of just 2,000 undergrads. Most of the Griffins sports programs participate at the NAIA level, though men's club lax won the whole thing at the MCLA's Division II level last year.
This year, Westminster's first as a RMLC Division I member, went about as well as one could hope. The Griffins finished the year 11-5, stumbling against the more established clubs in the conference, but steamrolling other Division I programs. These guys score a lot of goals. Like, a LOT of goals. Westminster finishing the year with a +113 goal differential, including one-sided victories over Utah (29-8 and 23-7), Washington (23-3), Utah Valley (22-4) and Idaho (18-2). For comparison's sake, BC finished the year +37. These guys don't mess around.
The Eagles' opening round game vs. the Griffins is on Monday, May 12 at 5:00 p.m. on the campus of UC-Irvine. The BC / Westminster winner will advance to the Quarterfinals to face the winner of top-seeded Arizona State / Indiana in a game scheduled for 7:45 p.m. the following night.
Here is the complete tournament bracket:
(1) Arizona State (16-0, 4-0 SLC) vs. (16) Indiana (10-3, 4-0 GRLC)
(8) Boston College (10-3, 4-1 PCLL) vs. (9) Westminster (11-5, 1-3 RMLC)
(5) Colorado State (11-5, 2-2 RMLC) vs. (12) Simon Fraser (14-3, 8-0 PNCLL)
(4) Chapman (14-5, 6-0 SLC) vs. (13) Northeastern (10-2, 4-1 PCLL)
(3) BYU (15-3, 3-1 RMLC) vs. (14) Virginia Tech (14-3, 4-1 SELC)
(6) UC Santa Barbara (12-5, 5-1 SLC) vs. (11) Cal Poly (12-5, 6-0 WCLL)
(7) Michigan State (14-3, 5-1 CCLA) vs. (10) Texas (14-4, 4-1 LSA)
(2) Colorado (14-2, 4-0 RMLC) vs. (15) Minnesota-Duluth (9-4, 5-0 UMLC)
Be sure to follow @BC_Mens_Lax on Twitter and visit bceagleslacrosse.com.
Go Eagles!