America East conference will crown champions in Men’s Lacrosse, Women’s Lacrosse and Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field this weekend.
Top-seed UMBC and No. 2 seed Stony Brook will host Men’s Lacrosse semifinals on Wednesday (April 29) evening. The Retrievers will entertain No. 4 seed Binghamton while the Seawovles will play No. 3 seed Albany. The winners will meet for the America East Championship on Saturday (May 2) at the home field of the higher seed. Both UMBC (No. 11) and Stony Brook (No. 20) are ranked in the most recent USILA national poll, released Monday.
Top-seed Boston University hosts the entire America East Women’s Lacrosse Championship. Semifinals will be played Thursday (April 30) afternoon at Nickerson Field on the Boston University campus. The Terriers and No. 4 seed Vermont meet at 1 p.m. in the first semifinal. No. 2 seed Albany and No. 3 seed New Hampshire follow. The championship game will be held Saturday (May 2) at 1 p.m. Last season, both Boston University and New Hampshire participated in the NCAA Tournament, with the Terriers advancing to the second round.
Ticket information to both lacrosse championships has been released. America East will also provide free live streaming of the championship games at AmericaEast.com.
The America East Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held Saturday and Sunday (May 2-3) at Binghamton University. Albany is the defending men’s outdoor champion. The Great Danes are coming off an impressive indoor season when they became the first America East team to win the prestigious IC4A Championship, dethroning traditional power Connecticut. Boston University is the defending women’s outdoor champion.
Softball enters the final weekend of conference play with the top seed and tournament qualification up for grabs. Stony Brook (13-4 in America East) is atop the standings with a one game lead over Boston University (12-5) and a game-and-a-half lead over Albany (11-5). Hartford (9-7) is currently in fourth place, with both UMBC (10-8) and Maine (10-8) close behind. The top four seeds advance to the America East Softball Championship on May 7-9 at the highest seed.
Baseball continues conference play with the America East Championship still three weeks away (May 21-23).
Binghamton (men) and Boston University (women) successfully defended their America East Tennis Championships at New Haven, Conn. this past weekend. Albany was a repeat champion in Women’s Golf.
It was a good week for America East alumni as Hartford grad Jerry Kelly earned a win on the PGA Tour with a one-stroke victory at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Kelly shot a final-day 71 for a four-day total of 274 (-14). His win earned him $1.1 million and 500 points in the FedEx Cup standings. Former Hartford teammate Tim Petrovic, who won the event in 2005, was 11th at -9.
America East also received good news as 19 teams were recognized by the NCAA with public recognition awards for their latest multiyear Academic Performance Rate (APR).