Cambridge, Mass.-- The two-time America East Women's Lacrosse Champion University at Albany will face top overall seed Florida in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship. The game will be held 1 p.m. this Saturday, May 12 at Donald R. Dizney Stadium in Gainesville.
Albany (12-5) won the America East's automatic bid to the field of 16 with its conference championship run as the four seed, knocking off the tournament's top two seeds capped by a 9-7 victory over No. 2 Stony Brook on Saturday. Senior Mel Rorie earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award with a hat trick in the title game against the Seawolves and a team-best seven goals during the tournament.
Sophomore midfielder Ariana Parker, a first-team all-conference choice and a Tewaaraton Award nominee, leads Albany with 38 goals and 53 points entering the national tournament. Junior Rachael Burek adds 35 goals and a team-high 64 draw controls at the attack position.
The Great Danes advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals last season in the program's debut appearance in the Big Dance. Albany fell to eventual national champion Northwestern.
Florida (17-2) is coming off its first-ever American Lacrosse Conference Championship where it upended Northwestern 14-7 in the title game. Midfielder Shannon Gilroy paced the Gators with seven goals and three draw controls in the title game.
Eight first-round games will be conducted Saturday or Sunday, May 12-13,
and four quarterfinal games will be played Saturday or Sunday, May
19-20. Preliminary round games will be played on the campuses of
competing schools. The winners of the four quarterfinal games will
advance to the semifinals and final hosted by Stony Brook on May 25 and
27 at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. The semifinal games will be shown
live on ESPN3 at 5:30 and 8 p.m. ET. The championship game will be shown
live on ESPNU at 8 p.m. Tickets for the championship games in Stony
Brook can be purchased online at http://www.ncaa.com/tickets.