The 2011

NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship The NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament is annual single-elimination tournament hosted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the national champion women's collegiate lacrosse among its Division I members in the Un ...

was the 30th 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 14–21, and the semifinal and championship rounds were played at

Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium The Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium is the main stadium for Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, United States. Construction began in 2000 at a cost of approximately $22 million. With a capacity of 12,300 people (10,300 seating and 2,000 s ...

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from May 27–29. All NCAA Division I women's lacrosse programs were eligible for this championship, and a total of 16 teams were invited to participate. Northwestern defeated

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 ...

, 8–7, to win their sixth national championship, and first since

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. This would subsequently become the sixth of Northwestern's seven national titles in eight years (2005–2009, 2011–12) as well as the seventh of the Wildcats' eight consecutive appearances in the championship game (2005–12). This was also a rematch of the previous year's final, won by Maryland. The leading scorer for the tournament was Shannon Smith from Northwestern (22 goals). Smith was also 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

* Emma Hamm, Duke * Mollie Mackler, Duke * Brandi Jones, Maryland * Sarah Mollison, Maryland * Katie Schwarzmann, Maryland * Corey Donohoe, North Carolina * Laura Zimmerman, North Carolina *

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, Northwestern * Brianne LoManto, Northwestern * Colleen Magarity, Northwestern * Shannon Smith, Northwestern (Most outstanding player) * Taylor Thornton, Northwestern

References