STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The real season now begins for the Stony Brook women's lacrosse team.
After claiming their eighth straight America East title on Saturday with a win against UAlbany, the Seawolves were awarded the No. 8 seed and will host Towson in an opening-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament on Friday at noon.
Drexel and Rutgers will play at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in the second game on Friday, with the winners advancing to a Sunday matchup at noon and potentially the right to face top-seeded North Carolina in a quarterfinal the following week.
The selections were revealed on ESPNU on Sunday night, with Stony Brook student-athletes shown during the televised event from inside Island Federal Arena.
The Seawolves
defeated host Towson, 10-8, on March 7.
Stony Brook last hosted an NCAA Tournament game in 2018, when the Seawolves thrashed Penn, 18-5, behind a combined 11 goals from
Courtney Murphy and
Kylie Ohlmiller.
Those standouts since have graduated, but
Ally Kennedy and
Taryn Ohlmiller also had impacts in that game. They joined their ex-teammates this season as the only members of the program's 200-career-goal club.
Kennedy is currently a Tewaaraton Award nominee. She was named Most Outstanding Player of the America East tournament after scoring a league-record 12 goals in two games.
"At the end of the day, we're three wins from getting to the Final Four," said Stony Brook coach Joe Spallina, who has led the Seawolves to 54 straight wins against America East opponents, the longest conference winning streak in any sport tracked by the NCAA. "We're five wins away from winning the national championship. I don't think this group needs me to say much more than that. They understand. The goals are set.
"For some teams, winning the conference championship is the Super Bowl. For us, it's the beginning. We've got a track record of winning games in the NCAA Tournament. We don't have a track record of getting to Championship Weekend. We've been knocking on the door for a long time, and I feel like this is the group that could kick the door down."
