The 2010 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship was the 29th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of Division I

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

women's

college lacrosse College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and university, universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse ...

. The first two rounds of the tournament were played at the home fields of higher-seeded teams from May 15–22, and the semifinal and championship rounds were played at

Johnny Unitas Stadium Johnny Unitas Stadium is a multi-purpose sports stadium in Towson, Maryland, United States. The home of several Towson University athletics teams, it is also known as Minnegan Field at Johnny Unitas Stadium or Unitas Stadium. History The stadiu ...

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...

from May 28–30. All NCAA Division I women's lacrosse programs were eligible for this championship, and a total of 16 teams were invited to participate.

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

defeated Northwestern, 13–11, to win their tenth national championship, and first since

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. Maryland's win ended Northweastern's streak of five consecutive national titles (2005–09). Nonetheless, this would subsequently become the sixth of the Wildcats' eight consecutive appearances in the championship game (2005–12). The leading scorer for the tournament was Shannon Smith from Northwestern (20 goals). Caitlyn McFadden from Maryland was named the tournament's ''Most Outstanding Player''.

Tournament field

A total of 16 teams were invited to participate. 9 teams qualified automatically by winning their conference tournaments while the remaining 7 teams qualified at-large based on their regular season records.

Play-in games

Teams

Tournament bracket

* ''Host institution''

All-tournament team

* Kari Ellen Johnson, Maryland * Caitlyn McFadden, Maryland (Most outstanding player) * Sarah Mollison, Maryland * Katie Schwarzmann, Maryland * Karissa Taylor, Maryland * Corey Donohoe, North Carolina * Laura Zimmerman, North Carolina * Katrina Dowd, Northwestern * Shannon Smith, Northwestern * Danielle Spencer, Northwestern * Liz Hogan, Syracuse * Halley Quillinan, Syracuse

References