Georgetown appeared headed for its 12th straight NCAA tournament berth a week ago, while Navy seemed likely to miss the postseason for the first time since 2003.
A wild weekend switched their fates — and left Hoyas coach Dave Urick wondering about what criteria were emphasized during the selection process.
Virginia (No. 2) and Maryland (No. 7) both earned seeds and could meet in the quarterfinals May 17 in Annapolis.
But the most notable story in the area was the absence of Georgetown, which entered the season with the nation’s second longest streak of tournament appearances.
The Hoyas (9-4) owned the nation’s most impressive victory — a March 22 victory over top-seeded Duke — and knocked off Navy on March 29. But they also suffered an overtime loss Saturday at Penn State, a team ranked in the bottom half of the RPI.
Navy (9-5), meanwhile, slipped into the field despite a late slide and will visit fourth-seeded North Carolina (8-5) for the second straight year in the first round Saturday.
“Navy is the one we’re going to have the toughest time coming to grips with,” Urick said. “When you beat a team head-to-head on their field — and we also had a win over Duke, which no one else had. …
“When you watch the selection show for basketball, one of the things they point out is how teams finish the season up. If you look at Navy, they lost their last three and four of their last five. I don’t know if this committee does [take that into account].”
Head-to-head is one of several tools the committee uses to select the field. Results-driven performance, RPI and strength of schedule are the primary criteria.
All of those facets helped the Midshipmen, who added a third top-10 victory this weekend when Colgate defeated Syracuse. That result, along with losses by Army, Georgetown and Princeton, helped Navy earn its fifth straight NCAA berth.
“Nothing’s been easy for us this year,” coach Richie Meade said. “I think everybody that’s been selected into the tournament as an at-large had to earn their way in at some point this season. A lot of things that happened [Saturday] helped, but we also helped ourselves by beating some pretty good teams.”
The rest of the bracket reflected the sport’s changing landscape, even though two area titans earned home games for their typically strong seasons.
Maryland (9-5) will meet Denver (10-6) at Byrd Stadium on Saturday. The Pioneers are one of three teams from the Great Western Lacrosse League to earn a berth.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame secured a No. 6 seed on the strength of its GWLL title and will welcome Colgate to South Bend, Ind. Another surprise was the committee’s decision to ship top-seeded Duke north for a potential quarterfinal date with Cornell on the Big Red’s home field.
One team that received a somewhat predictable slot was Virginia. The Cavaliers (12-3) will play host to America East champion Maryland-Baltimore County (12-3) on Sunday at Klockner Stadium.
“[Assistant coach] Marc Van Arsdale and I were prognosticating this afternoon, and it didn’t come out the way we thought it would,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “It didn’t come out the way we thought it would, but we’re excited about the opportunity to be moving forward.”
The same isn’t true for Georgetown, which was done in mainly because of an unusually weak year in the ECAC. Saturday’s loss only adds to the Hoyas’ what-ifs as they face spending May at home for the first time since 1996.
“If this does help us as we go forward in terms of how guys prepare and how we work and how we approach things, maybe that will be a good thing,” Urick said. “We’ll certainly try to deal with it maturely and gear our approach accordingly as we go forward.”
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