Colorado, Westminster Earn WCLA Top Seeds
from press release
Update: UW-River Falls Added to Division II Field
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Colorado, making its sixth straight national championship appearance, is aiming for its first title. © Cecil Copeland |
BALTIMORE – The University of Colorado
and Westminster College received the top seeds for the Division I
and Division II brackets, respectively, for the 2011 US Lacrosse
Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Associates (WCLA) National
Championships, presented by Harrow Sports. Scheduled for May 4-7,
the WCLA National Championships take place in Scottsdale, Ariz., at
the Scottsdale Sports Complex. Formerly the Women’s Division
Intercollegiate Associates, the WCLA National Championships feature
the top 24 women’s collegiate club teams in the country.
The Division I tournament hosts the top 16 teams and the Division
II tournament highlights eight teams. The Division I first-round
games start Wednesday, May 4 and the Division II first-round games
start Thursday, May 5. Both championship games are scheduled for
Saturday, May 7.
Colorado earned the No. 1 seed in the Division I flight after
going 15-1 this season. The Buffaloes started the season strong,
going 5-0 at the Santa Barbara Shootout and never slowed up.
Colorado’s only loss was a 9-6 setback to Florida Club on
March 26 at the A-Town Throwdown in Georgia. Colorado had
previously beaten Florida and bounced back from its only defeat by
winning seven straight games to close the season. This is
Colorado’s seventh straight berth to the national
championship tournament and it has made three straight final four
appearances, including a runner-up finish in 2009.
Florida Club earned the No. 2 seed after a 17-2 season that
included a 12-9 victory over Georgia in the Southeastern
Women’s Lacrosse League championship game this past weekend.
UC Davis Club earned the No. 3 seed despite falling 10-9 to Santa
Clara in the Western Women’s Lacrosse League championship
game. The Aggies were ranked No. 1 nationally before the tournament
and are now 14-2 for the season. Santa Clara rode its WWLL
championship to the No. 4 seed and is now 12-2 for the season.
Rounding out the top five seeds is Lindenwood, which is playing at
the club level for the final time this year in preparation for a
move to the NCAA Division II level.
This is just the second year that the WCLA national championship
features a Division II flight and Westminster is making its first
appearance in the tournament. Westminster went 15-3 this season
with all three losses coming to Division I teams. Chapman, another
first-time national tournament participant, earned the No. 2 seed
after a 15-0 season. SMU is making its second straight trip to the
national tournament and earned the No. 3 seed after an 11-3 season
that included a pair of losses to Division I national qualifier
Texas and a loss to Westminster.
Last year’s national champions were Colorado State in
Division I and Cal Berkeley Club in Division II. CSU, which won the
national championship last year as a No. 11 seed, is seeded sixth
this season. It will meet Pitt in the opening round. Cal Berkeley
moved up to Division I this season and was not selected for the
tournament field.
Selections for the field were extremely competitive. The selection
committee used a variety of criteria to base their decisions
including: overall record, record versus ranked teams, won-loss
versus common opponents, record versus WCLA teams, quality
wins/quality losses, upsets, head-to-head results, conference
playoff performance, final conference standings, record for last
five (5) games, and more.
The US Lacrosse WCLA structure consists of approximately 200
college programs from across the country. Further information about
the WCLA is available online at www.uslacrosse.org/wcla.
Harrow Sports is the official event sponsor and retailer for the
2011 US Lacrosse WCLA National Championships.
Division I First Round Games (Wednesday, May
4)
No. 1 Colorado vs. No. 16 Midland
No. 2 Florida Club vs. No. 15 Minnesota
No. 3 UC Davis Club vs. No. 14 Washington
No. 4 Santa Clara vs. No. 13 Boston College Club
No. 5 Lindenwood vs. No. 12 Cal Poly
No. 6 Colorado State vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh
No. 7 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 10 Texas
No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 9 UCLA
Division II First Round Games (Thursday, May
5)
No. 1 Westminster vs. No. 8 UW-River Falls
No. 2 Chapman vs. No. 7 Oakland
No. 3 Southern Methodist vs. No. 6 Utah
No. 4 Towson Club vs. No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth
* - St. Benedict was originally selected as the No. 7 seed in the Division II field, but was unable to participate.
