DENVER -- No. 12/13 Albany, the America East champion, will face No. 6/5 Denver in the first round of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EDT. in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPNU and the WatchESPN App.
The Great Danes reached the tournament for the fifth time in program history by winning the America East title last weekend, while Denver (12-4), the tournament's No. 4 overall seed, received an at-large bid out of the ECAC.
NCAA Primer
• Three different America East teams have reached the NCAA quarterfinals since 2007. Albany and UMBC reached the round of eight in 2007 with wins over Loyola and Maryland, respectively. Stony Brook joined the group with a victory over Denver in 2010.
• Albany (13-4), the No. 12/13 team in the nation, was perfect in America East play this season, captured the league's regular-season title for the fifth time and beat national powerhouses Syracuse and Johns Hopkins.
• The Great Danes lead the nation averaging 16.0 goals per game and have scored 15 or more goals in 13 of their 17 games this season.
• Albany is making its fifth-ever NCAA appearance, also reaching the tournament in 2003, '04, '05 and '07. The Great Danes are 1-4 all-time in the tournament, their lone win coming over Loyola, 19-10, in the '07 first round. Albany nearly reached the Final Four that year, taking Cornell to overtime, before falling, 12-11.
• The Great Danes, winners of nine of their last 10, got here by coming back from a five-goal deficit to knock off Stony Brook, 17-15, in the America East semifinals and then beat UMBC, 19-10, in the championship game to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Lyle Thompson tallied nine points on three goals and six assists in the title game and set a tournament record with 15 points (6 G, 9 A) in the championship en route to earning Most Outstanding Player honors.
• Albany Lyle Thompson, the America East Player of the Year, was joined by his brother, Miles, Kevin Glueckert and Anthony Ostrander on the All-Championship team.
• Lyle Thompson was named one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award this week. He leads the nation with 108 points (46 G, 62 A), the third most in a single season in NCAA history, and just six shy of UMBC's Steve Grohl ('82) for the most all-time. Thompson's 62 assists are the most in a season in league history while his 108 points are second to John Grant's 110 in 1999.
• Lyle, his brother, Miles, and their cousin, Ty, have combined for 240 points on 139 goals and 101 assists this season. That total is more than 20 NCAA teams have had in total this season.