The UMass men's lacrosse team has made the CAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed and will face the No. 1 seed Penn State at 3 p.m. on Wednesday in University Park, Pa.
After its 16-8 win over Delaware on Friday night, the University of Massachusetts men's lacrosse team's postseason fate was no longer in its hands.
The Minutemen (7-7, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Association) needed both Saint Joseph's to lose to Towson and Hofstra to lose to Penn State for its season to continue into the CAA Tournament.
And after a long day of waiting for the two 7 p.m. games on Saturday, UMass got the news it wanted to hear - it was going to the CAA Tournament to defend its title from last season.
The Minutemen will have little time to celebrate however as they will have to prepare to face the No. 1 seed in the tournament, the No. 9 team in the nation and the host of the CAA Tournament, Penn State (11-3, 6-0 CAA), at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams faced off earlier this season in a game at Garber Field, which Penn State won 7-5.
The winner of the UMass and Penn State game will face the winner of the game between the three-seed Towson and the two-seed Drexel, which is scheduled to begin at 5:30 on Wednesday. The two winners will then battle for the tournament crown and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament on Friday at 3 p.m.
Just two weeks ago, it looked like the Minutemen might have been out of tournament contention after an 0-4 start to conference play. However, UMass was able to string together two consecutive wins to close out the season and make its way to the postseason.
On Friday, the Minutemen looked like the team that most experts predicted it would be at the beginning of the season. Expectations were high after the Minutemen went undefeated during the regular season last year, won the CAA Championship and climbed to the No. 1 ranking in the nation before losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
But due to issues such as injuries and offensive woes, UMass fell on hard times during the middle of the season when it had four-game and three-game losing streaks.
That all seemed to be forgotten on Friday as the Minutemen dominated Delaware behind six goals and three assists by senior Kyle Smith and four goals and three assists by senior Will Manny.
If UMass can carry that momentum into the CAA Tournament, it could be a dark horse in the race for the conference crown.