The 2009 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament was held from May 9 through May 25, 2009. This was the 39th annual Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. Sixteen NCAA Division I college men's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Overview

The first round of the tournament was played on May 9 and 10 at the home fields of the seeded teams. The quarterfinals were held on May 16 and 17th on neutral site fields at Hofstra University (

James M. Shuart Stadium The James M. Shuart Stadium is an 11,929-seat multi-purpose stadium and sports facility, the facility serves as the home to Hofstra's lacrosse teams on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. First opened in 1963, and remodeled in ...

) and the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

(

Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium is an open-air stadium located off the campus of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Opened in 1959, it serves as the home stadium of the Navy Midshipmen college football and lacrosse team ...

). The tournament culminated with the semifinals and final held on

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

weekend at

Gillette Stadium Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foot ...

in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The tournament was won by Syracuse University who defeated

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, 10–9, in

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

in front of 41,935 fans.

Qualifying teams

The NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Committee selected the participating teams for the championship tournament. The committee announced the qualifying teams and the

seeding The term seeding and related terms such as seeded are used in several different contexts: *Sowing, planting seeds in a place or on an object *Cloud seeding, manipulating cloud formations *Seeding (computing), a concept in computing and peer-to-pee ...

order on Sunday, May 3, 2009. Seven

conferences A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...

received automatic bids for their top team. The remaining nine teams were selected by the committee as "at-large" bids.The Roads To Foxborough Begin

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

, May 3, 2009. Five conferences held tournament championships, which also determined their NCAA bids.

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

earned an automatic bid by winning the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and ...

(MAAC) championship for both their first conference title and first NCAA tournament appearance. Villanova earned an automatic bid by winning Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship and also made its NCAA tournament debut.Villanova, Hofstra To Represent CAA In 2009 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships
Colonial Athletic Association, May 3, 2009.

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

earned an automatic bid by winning its fifth Patriot League championship in six years. Both Notre Dame and

UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

repeated as conference champions by winning the

Great Western Lacrosse League The Great Western Lacrosse League, also known as the GWLL, was an NCAA Division I men's college lacrosse athletic conference that existed from 1994 to 2009. The conference was created when the NCAA instituted automatic qualifiers to the NCAA ch ...

(GWLL) and

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

, respectively. Two conferences awarded their bids based on regular season performance. UMass earned the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fr ...

(ECAC) championship and its automatic with a 6–1 conference record. The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

awarded its automatic bid to

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

and Cornell possessed identical conference records and were named co-champions. The head-to-head regular season game, which Cornell had won, acted as the tie-breaking criterion.Ivy Men's Lax Earn Three NCAA Bids

, May 4, 2009. The remaining nine berths were awarded to at-large teams.

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament for the third straight season, but the league does not receive an automatic bid because it does not have at least six members.All Four ACC Teams Earn Bids to the 2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship
, Atlantic Coast Conference, May 3, 2009. Nevertheless, all four ACC teams received at-large bids: Duke,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Additionally, the NCAA Selection Committee awarded at-large bids to: independents Johns Hopkins and Syracuse,

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

and Princeton of the Ivy League, and

Hofstra Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New ...

of the CAA.

Tournament bracket

* * = Overtime

Game summaries

First round

The 1st round of the tournament, seven of the eight seeded teams advanced. Every past NCAA tournament had been won by seven of the eight teams that advanced to the quarterfinals, with Duke being the only one to have never won a national title, up to this tournament. For the first time, all four Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) teams advanced to the second round. It was just the second time in tournament history that four teams from the same conference advanced. The first instance occurred in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

with Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

of the

. The tournament began on Saturday, May 9, when the

Brown Bears The Brown Bears are the sports teams that represent Brown University, an American university located in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bears are part of the Ivy League conference. Brown's mascot is Bruno. Both the men's and women's teams share th ...

traveled to face the eighth-seeded

Johns Hopkins Blue Jays The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays are the 24 intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, Maryland. They compete in the NCAA Division III, except for their lacrosse teams, which compete in Division I. T ...

Homewood Field Homewood Field is the athletics stadium of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. History It was built in 1906 and has an official capacity of 8,500 people. The name is taken, as is that of the entire campus, from the name of the ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. The Blue Jays pulled away to three-goal leads in the first and final quarters, but the Bears equalized both times. In the final ten seconds of regulation, Brown attackman Kyle Hollingsworth batted in a loose ball to even the score, 11–11. In

, Hopkins won the

faceoff A face-off is the method used to begin and restart play after goals in some sports using sticks, primarily ice hockey, bandy, floorball, broomball, rinkball, and lacrosse. During a face-off, two teams line up in opposition to each other, and ...

and called a timeout, before Brian Christopher drove up the right side of the field and made a game-winning top-corner shot on the run. It was the third overtime goal by Christopher in Hopkins' past four games.

then played at number-six seed

. The UMBC Retrievers possessed the most efficient extra-man offense (EMO) and the best-rated

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

in the nation. Their roster, however, lacked depth, and the first-string midfielders were forced to play in the heat for almost the entire game. At halftime, the Retrievers led the Tar Heels, 8–6. The lead changed hands several times in the third period, before North Carolina took control for the remainder of the game to win, 15–13. Tar Heels attackman Billy Bitter, who attempted only nine shots, matched the school single-game record with eight goals.

played at fifth-seeded

, where the teams were even at halftime, 5–5. The third period was the decisive quarter, and Cornell won three face-offs and outscored Hofstra five-to-one. In

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, third-seeded

hosted

. At halftime, the Blue Devils led 10–0 and expanded the rout to 13–1 at the start of the final period. Duke advanced with a final score of 14–5. The second day of the tournament began with the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

facing the seventh-seeded

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

at home in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

. The Fighting Irish entered the game in possession of a perfect 15–0 record, but still considered an unknown variable due to their schedule. The magazine '' Inside Lacrosse'' called the Terrapins a talented team that had underachieved during the regular season. The first-ranked Notre Dame defense frustrated Maryland, but the Terps still managed to gain a 6–1 lead in the third quarter. Maryland's defense effectively shut-down Notre Dame and the leading Irish scorer Ryan Hoff was unable to make a single shot on goal. Maryland was the only unseeded team to advance to the quarterfinals. Both schools making their inaugural NCAA tournament appearance suffered quick elimination. The

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association ( Football Championship ...

were trounced by the Virginia Cavaliers, 18–6. The Cavaliers were led by Brian Carroll's career-high five goal performance. The

Siena Saints The Siena Saints (formerly the Siena Indians) are composed of 21 teams representing Siena College in collegiate sports. The Saints compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Ath ...

were held scoreless for nearly 42 minutes in their loss to the

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is Ott ...

, 11–4.

Onondaga Community College Onondaga Community College (OCC) is a public community college that serves Onondaga County, New York, at two campuses. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History The college was founded in 1961 and began instructi ...

transfer Cody Jamieson, who had just been cleared academically, scored three goals in his first start for the Orange. At

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, the Tigers defeated the visiting

UMass Minutemen The UMass Minutemen are the athletic teams that represent the University of Massachusetts Amherst; strictly speaking, the ''Minutemen'' nickname applies to men's teams and athletes only — women's teams and athletes are known as ...

, 10–7. Princeton was led by Mark Kovler's six-point effort. The game was the final in the collegiate career of Minutemen goalkeeper

Doc Schneider Jonathan David "Doc" Schneider (born April 25, 1987, in Massapequa, New York) is a goaltender formerly of the Hamilton Nationals of Major League Lacrosse. Early life Schneider, who is Jewish, acquired the nickname 'Doc' from his family. He is ...

who led his team to the 2006 championship game as a freshman. His opposite number, Princeton's Tyler Fiorito, became just the second freshman goalkeeper to start an NCAA tournament game for the Tigers.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals took place over the weekend of May 16 to 17 at two neutral sites. The first doubleheader was sponsored on Saturday by Hofstra University, followed by games held at the

on Sunday. Despite overcast weather at both locations, it was the first time that each NCAA quarterfinals venue attracted in excess of 11,000 spectators. The second round opened at Hofstra's

with the Maryland–Syracuse match-up. Al Cavalieri filled in as the Orange goalkeeper for long-time starter John Galloway who was sick with the flu. Syracuse scored three unanswered goals in the first quarter before Maryland goalie Brian Phipps suffered an ACL tear. Terrapins midfielder Grant Catalino narrowed the deficit to 5–3 before halftime on an extra-man score. In the second half, Syracuse made defensive adjustments to shut down Maryland's behind-the-goal attack, and the Orange tallied three times in the span of 2:10 to pull away in the third quarter. Syracuse won, 11–6, and extended its postseason streak against Maryland to five. Ivy League rivals Cornell and Princeton then had their 70th meeting, but first in the NCAA tournament. Earlier in the postseason, the Big Red defeated the Tigers to split the Ivy League championship. Three Princeton shots hit the post in the first half of the second quarter, and Cornell entered halftime with a 5–1 advantage. In the third quarter, Tigers attackman Tommy Davis ended their 27:58 scoring drought with a 15-yard shot. Princeton quickly tallied again with 28 seconds in the period. In the final quarter, the Big Red withstood two penalties to win, 6–4. The second day of the quarterfinals took place at

in Annapolis, Maryland. The first game featured top-ranked Virginia and Johns Hopkins. The Cavaliers dominated the Blue Jays, 19–8, in their worst postseason defeat in school history. Shamel Bratton of Virginia scored a career-high five goals. The victory marked the 300th of head coach Dom Starsia's career, and he became the third coach in Division I lacrosse history to win as many games. Virginia advanced to their fourth Final Four appearance in five seasons.Virginia beats Johns Hopkins 19–8 in NCAA Quarterfinals
, ''Inside Lacrosse'', May 17, 2009. With the quarterfinals elimination of both Maryland and Johns Hopkins, 2009 became only the third time since the NCAA tournament began that no team from

the state A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...

participated in the Final Four. The final game of the round featured intrastate rivals Duke and North Carolina in their third meeting of the season. In the first quarter, the Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead and survived a two-man-down penalty, but the Tar Heels scored four unanswered goals to briefly take the lead in the second quarter. Late in the final period, North Carolina rallied from a four-point deficit to trail by one goal, 12–11. As time expired, a shot by Sean Delaney missed high over the goal, and Duke defeated North Carolina for the third time of the year. The Blue Devils' Zach Howell scored a career-high three goals and

Tewaaraton Trophy The Tewaaraton Award is an annual award for the most outstanding American college lacrosse men's and women's players, since 2001. It is the lacrosse equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. The award is presented by The Tewaaraton Foundation and th ...

finalist Ned Crotty tallied twice and had six assists.Duke lacrosse ousts UNC
''

The News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the ''Charlotte Observer''). The paper has bee ...

'', May 18, 2009. Accessed 2009-06-07.
Archived
2009-08-01. The Duke defense held Carolina's leading scorer, Billy Bitter, to just two assists.

Semifinals

Syracuse vs. Duke

Syracuse met Duke for the first game at

in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which was attended by 36,594 fans, a decrease from the previous year's 48,224.Big Upset Makes It an Upstate New York Final
''The New York Times'', May 23, 2009. Nine Orange players scored in a rout of the Blue Devils, 17–7, which demonstrated the depth of the Syracuse offense. It was the most goals allowed by Duke all season. Seniors Kenny Nims and Patrick Perritt led the Orange with four goals each. Freshman Tim Desko, son of head coach

John Desko John Terry Desko is a retired lacrosse head coach. Desko coached the men's lacrosse team at Syracuse University for 22 seasons from 1999 to 2021. Desko took over as head coach in 1999 from Hall of Fame coach Roy Simmons Jr. Early life The Des ...

, and heralded transfer

Cody Jamieson Cody Jamieson (born July 17, 1987) is a Mohawk lacrosse player from the Turtle Clan at Grand River. He plays for the Halifax Thunderbirds of the National Lacrosse League, the New York Lizards of Major League Lacrosse, and the Six Nations Chiefs i ...

each tallied twice. The Orange dominated the faceoff circle and won 18 of 28 draws. To open the third quarter, senior Jake Moulton won the opening faceoff and scored nine seconds into the half. With the victory, the Orange advanced to the championship game for the seventh time since 1999.

Cornell vs. Virginia

In the second game of the day, fifth-seeded Cornell upset first-ranked Virginia. The Big Red upset the Cavaliers decisively, 15–6, and advanced to the championship game for the first time in over two decades.Big Red stuns Cavs
''The Baltimore Sun'', May 24, 2009. Cornell controlled the game from the start, and accounted for the game's first three tallies and entered halftime with an 8–2 advantage. Big Red freshman Rob Pannell, junior Ryan Hurley, and senior Chris Finn each scored three times. The Cornell defense created 18 turnovers and stymied Virginia's high-powered attack. Commenting on the upset, Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni said, "We knew we weren't going to have a whole lot of believers out there. We needed to play hard first and believe second."

Championship

Syracuse vs. Cornell

The final game was also held at Gillette Stadium on

May 25. Cornell controlled the game for the first 56 minutes and frustrated Syracuse with a tough defense. With just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Big Red led, 9–6, before Syracuse's Stephen Keogh and Cody Jamieson narrowed the deficit to one goal with 2:46 remaining. Keogh attempted another shot but missed and Cornell took possession with 27.6 seconds left to play. Kenny Nims dislodged the ball from Matt Moyer and Keogh recovered the ball, making a wild pass, which was caught by Syracuse's Matt Abbott. As he was flattened by Cornell defenders, Abbott got off a desperation pass to Nims, who had run from midfield to the very edge of the crease. The pass was tipped by Cornell’s Roy Lang, but Nims was able to gather in the tipped pass and connect with his shot on goal with four seconds left, sending the game into overtime.Syracuse title has storybook ending
ESPN, May 25, 2009. Cornell won the overtime faceoff, but Syracuse defenseman Sid Smith stripped Ryan Hurley to create a turnover. Dan Hardy feigned a shot before passing to Jamieson, positioned just beyond the crease, who scored the game-winner.Warrior May Madness: In-Game Blog – NCAA Championship Game, Syracuse vs Cornell
''Inside Lacrosse'', May 25, 2009. Accessed 2009-06-07.
Archived
2009-08-01.

Post-tournament honors

After the championship, Cornell midfielder Max Seibald was honored with the

for the most outstanding Division I men's lacrosse player. Syracuse attackman Kenny Nims was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. The NCAA named its "All-Tournament Team" following the championship game, which consisted of five players each from Syracuse and Cornell. The following individuals made up that team:NCAA All-Tournament Team for men’s lacrosse
, ''Inside Lacrosse'', May 25, 2009.

Record by conference

References

External links

via NCAA {{NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championships NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship

NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship The NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament determines the annual top men's field lacrosse team in the NCAA Division I. This tournament has determined the national champion since the inaugural 1971 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse ...

College sports in Massachusetts Lacrosse in Massachusetts Sports competitions in Foxborough, Massachusetts