The 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship was the thirty-first annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national championship for

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 ...

(NCAA) Division I women's college lacrosse. The tournament began with first-round play on May 12, and concluded with the championship game played at

Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium The Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium is the main stadium for Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, Stony Brook, New York (state), New York, United States. Construction began in 2000 at a cost of approximately $22 million. With a capacity of 12 ...

of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, on May 27, 2012. The

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

were the 2012 NCAA Tournament champions.

Dates and locations

The NCAA Tournament's eight first-round games were played Saturday, May 12, and Sunday, May 13, and the four quarterfinal games were played Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20. The tournament's first-round and quarterfinal games were played on the home fields of the higher seeded teams. The winners of the four quarterfinal games advanced to the two semifinal games played on May 25 and hosted by Stony Brook University at LaValle Stadium, the home field of the Stony Brook Seawolves football and lacrosse teams. The tournament championship game was played at LaValle Stadium on May 27.

Tournament field

The NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Committee selected sixteen teams to compete in the 2012 Division I women's lacrosse tournament. Northwestern leads DI selections
," NCAA.com (May 6, 2012). Retrieved May 16, 2012. Eight teams were selected on an "automatic qualifier" basis. The tournament champions of five conferences, including the

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 ...

, the

American Lacrosse Conference The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its histor ...

(ALC), the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

and the Ivy League, received automatic invitations to the NCAA Tournament. These five teams included the

Albany Great Danes The Albany Great Danes are the NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic programs of the University at Albany, SUNY, located in Albany, New York, United States. A member of the America East Conference, the University at Albany, SUNY sponsors team ...

of the America East, the No. 1 seed Florida Gators of the ALC, the No. 3 seed

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 ...

of the ACC, the No. 6 seed Loyola Greyhounds of the Big East, and the Dartmouth Big Green of the Ivy League. In addition, three play-in games were held to determine the last three automatic qualifiers. The champions of the Patriot League, the

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...

, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

(NEC), the Atlantic 10 Conference, and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) competed in the play-in games. The Patriot League's Navy Midshipmen defeated the

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. ...

of the Mountain Pacific, the CAA's Towson Tigers beat the NEC's Monmouth Hawks, and the Atlantic 10's

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 ...

defeated the

Canisius Golden Griffins The Canisius College Golden Griffins are composed of 16 teams representing Canisius College in intercollegiate athletics. These teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming and diving. Men's spo ...

of the MAAC, with the winners receiving the final three automatic qualifier bids. The remaining eight tournament teams were chosen by the NCAA tournament selection committee on an at-large basis; the factors considered by the selection committee included: (1) the NCAA's ratings percentage index (RPI); (2) results against common opponents; (3) significant wins and losses; and (4) evaluation of the ten highest-rated teams on a team's schedule, as defined by strength of schedule and winning percentage. The eight at-large teams selected by the committee were the No. 2 seed

, No. 4 seed

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 ...

, No. 5 seed North Carolina Tar Heels, and No. 7 seed Duke Blue Devils, as well as the unseeded

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 ...

, Penn Quakers, Penn State Nittany Lions, and Virginia Cavaliers.NCAA.com, Women's Lacrosse, Division I
2012 Lacrosse Championship
Retrieved May 14, 2012. Eight conferences placed member teams in the 2012 tournament, but four conferences dominated the selections, garnering twelve invitations in the sixteen-team field. The ACC received four bids (Maryland, North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia), the ALC got three (Florida, Northwestern, Penn State), the Big East also received three (Syracuse, Loyola, Notre Dame), and the Ivy League got two (Dartmouth, Penn). The ACC, ALC and Big East also dominated the tournament seeding, with member teams receiving the top seven seeds.

Play-in games

Seeds

1. Florida (17-2)
2. Northwestern (17-2)
3. Maryland (17-3)
4. Syracuse (16-3)
5. North Carolina (14-3)
6. Loyola (MD) (13-5)
7. Duke (11-6)
8. Towson (16-3)

Teams

Tournament bracket

The 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket consisted of sixteen teams, eight of whom were seeded No. 1 through No. 8. In the first round of the tournament, each of the eight seeded teams was paired with one of the eight unseeded teams.Katherine Dunn,
Lacrosse Insider: Women's D-I field may be tighter than ever at the top
" ''The Baltimore Sun'' (May 7, 2012). Retrieved May 16, 2012.

References

{{2011–12 NCAA Division I championships navbox

NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship Women's sports in New York (state) Lacrosse in New York (state)