CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Following a thrilling final day of the regular season, the seeds and matchups for the 2012 America East Men's Lacrosse Championship are set. Stony Brook captured the league's regular-season title and will be the tournament's No. 1 seed following its last-second win over Albany Saturday. The Great Danes, UMBC and Hartford, which beat Vermont in overtime to earn the tournament's final bid, round out the championship field.
The four-team tournament will begin with semifinal action on Wednesday, May 2 when Stony Brook (5-9 overall, 4-1 America East) hosts fourth-seeded Hartford (6-8, 3-2) in one contest and second-seeded UMBC (5-7, 3-2) hosts third-seeded Albany (4-10, 3-2) in the other. The Stony Brook-Hartford game starts at 7 p.m. while the UMBC-Albany contest begins at 7:30 p.m. The winners will advance to the championship game, which will be played on Saturday, May 5 at the higher remaining seed at 3 p.m. and be broadcast on ESPN3.
In the final action of the regular season, senior Kyle Belton found the back of the net with just eight seconds left to give Stony Brook a 12-11 win over Albany and its third straight America East regular-season crown. The Great Danes scored twice in the final five minutes to tie game at 11 but Belton scored the last of his career-high five goals off a feed from Jeff Tundo in the final seconds of regulation to seal the win.
In West Hartford, Martin Bowes kept Hartford's season alive as the senior scored with 1:24 left in overtime to give the reigning America East champions a 10-9 come-from-behind win over Vermont (2-12, 1-4). The Catamounts took a 9-7 lead on Drew Philie's goal with 3:17 left, but Bowes and Aidan Genik scored in the final minute of regulation to force overtime.
Saturday's results set up a rematch of last year's epic America East Championship game in the semifinals as the Seawolves and Hawks will square off. Hartford won that contest, 11-10 on Ryan Compitello's last second goal. The Hawks won this year's regular-season matchup in similar fashion, beating the Seawolves by the same score in overtime on April 21.
Also tonight, Binghamton (4-9, 1-4) earned its first conference win of the year, a decisive 15-8 victory over UMBC. The Bearcats controlled the game by winning 19-of-27 faceoffs and were led by Brandon Planck's five goals and two assists.
Despite the loss, the Retrievers earned the No. 2 seed for the championship by virtue of its wins over Albany and Hartford during the regular season. UMBC, which has been seeded second or better in eight of the nine America East tournaments it has participated in, won an epic 17-16 overtime decision against Albany last weekend as it overcame a five-goal four-quarter deficit.
Tickets for the two semifinal contests can be purchased through the Stony Brook and UMBC ticket offices. Prices are $8 for adults, $5 for youth and $2 for students of America East institutions with proper ID. For further information visit Championship Central.