There’s lots of history being made with the 2021 NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse tournament. Three teams in the 12-team field are making their first NCAA tournament appearances, including both Roberts Wesleyan and Bentley in the East region.

To make room, however, other teams were squeezed out. It’s always a tight fit in Division II, but it got even tighter in 2021 when the NCAA announced last December that the field size was being reduced from 16 to 12 teams for this spring’s championship due to the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The original bracket was modified to include just three teams from each of the four geographical regions. The 12-team NCAA field was announced on Sunday evening.

To the surprise of many, Le Moyne was one of the teams left on the outside in the East region. Despite a 13-1 overall and in-region record, the Dolphins were bypassed, leaving head coach Liz Beville among the disappointed.

“We are still dumbfounded and bewildered,” Beville said on Tuesday. “Our girls are still hurting. They did everything we asked them to do this year, and this just doesn’t sit well. My heart just breaks for our girls, and unfortunately, I’m not sure this feeling is going to go away very quickly.”

The only thing worth sharing today is how proud I am of our @LeMoyneWLAX student-athletes & support staff. They made numerous sacrifices, stayed disciplined and competed at a high level. I couldn’t ask for more & I am honored to be their Coach #phamily

— Liz Beville (@LizBeville) May 10, 2021

In the East region, Roberts Wesleyan, 13-1 overall and champion of the East Coast Conference, received the No. 1 seed, with ECC runner-up Mercy (12-2) seeded second and NE10 champion Bentley (12-2) seeded third.

Le Moyne was ranked second in the final regional ranking, released on May 5, one day before losing to Adelphi in the NE10 conference tournament.

“We were undefeated in the regular season and even with a loss, we figured we wouldn’t drop any lower than third,” Beville said. “We were blindsided.”

Ultimately, the committee’s data analysis didn’t add up in the Dolphins’ favor.

“The selection process is difficult every year, but there’s no doubt that reducing by one slot per region made this year’s process exceptionally more difficult,” said Dean O’Keefe, chair of the NCAA Division II Women’s Lacrosse National Committee. “There were some teams with really, really strong resumes that were left on the outside.”

O’Keefe confirmed that the same selection criteria used in previous years and outlined in the NCAA championship manual was applied in 2021. These include, in no particular order, criteria such as overall Division II in-region winning percentage, overall Division II winning percentage and overall Division II strength of schedule, among other criteria. The only requirement is that teams must play a minimum of seven in-region games and have a .500 record.

The committee also utilizes Division II results versus teams with .500 records or better, Performance Indicator (PI) and Rating Percentage Index (RPI).

“We look at all the data and the full body of work and weigh all the factors,” O’Keefe said.

The updated RPI numbers from the East region, shown in rank order, were:

1. Mercy (.702 RPI)
2. Roberts Wesleyan (.653)
3. Bentley (.629)
4. Le Moyne (.623)

The strength of schedule rankings and regional rank, also updated through the selections on May 9, were:

1. Mercy (.679 – No. 1 hardest schedule in the East region)
2. Roberts Wesleyan (.611 – 3rd)
3. Bentley (.553 – 8th)
4. Le Moyne (.521 – 14th)

O’Keefe noted that the committee is aware of some of the questions surrounding Le Moyne’s omission.

“We looked at them very, very closely, and we certainly understand their disappointment in not being selected,” he said. “Sometimes the difference between one team and another is by a razor-thin margin. All the data is important. SOS is important. RPI is important. And they all factored into our decision.”

While Le Moyne’s omission may have been the most glaring, there was also a few eyebrows raised in the South region.

As the only team from outside the states of Massachusetts, New York or Pennsylvania to win an NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse championship, Florida Southern has become a perennial challenger from the South region for the national title. The Mocs hoisted the championship trophy in 2016 and have finished as the national runner-up on two other occasions.

This year, despite a 9-1 record, FSC didn’t get tabbed for one of the South region’s three slots. Neither did Tampa or Rollins, two other Sunshine State Conference (SSC) members that spent much of the season ranked in the top half of the Nike / USA Lacrosse Division II Women’s Top 20.

Unfortunately for Kara Reber, the only coach in the 10-year history of the FSC program, prior success is not a consideration for the committee.

“We focus only on the data for the current season and don’t consider history,” O’Keefe said. “We intentionally do not factor in a program’s tradition.”

Similarly, national rankings like the weekly IWLCA poll or the Nike / USA Lacrosse Division II Top 20 are not factors.

“National rankings are great to help generate interest and publicity for women’s lacrosse, but they don’t influence the selection process at all,” O’Keefe said. “They have no bearing.”

O’Keefe also noted that the SSC’s decision to play a reduced number of games did not hurt the league’s members.

Earlier this spring, to limit potential COVID-19 exposure, the league announced that its teams would only play games against conference opponents, and that it would not host a season-ending conference tournament. Many of the traditional inter-sectional games that highlight the early season schedule for SSC squads were scrapped.

“There was a large discrepancy in the number of games played by different teams this year, but we took the position not to punish teams based on number of games,” O’Keefe said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have criteria like common opponents and head-to-head results to look at, which took some data out of play, so we had to focus on strength of schedule and winning percentage.”

Had this been a normal year, with an influx of teams from the Atlantic, East and Midwest regions visiting Florida, the selections may have looked a bit different.

“I think when we have opportunities, it shows where our conference stands in the South region,” Reber said. “We didn’t realize how the numbers might come out against us. And I think the selection committee went by the criteria they have used in the past, where RPI and strength of schedule are very much valued.”

The added irony this year is that while the Mocs have hung up their sticks and uniforms for the year, Florida Southern is serving as the pre-determined host of the South regional. They are the only one of the four regional hosts that are not in the 12-team field.

“Not being selected was out of our control, but we will still happily welcome the teams that were picked,” Reber said.

NCAA Notes

• Bentley (12-2) earned its first-ever NCAA tournament berth after winning its first NE10 championship, defeating Adelphi 9-8 in Sunday's final.

• West Chester claimed its 24th PSAC championship, defeating Seton Hill in Sunday's final, and is making its 14th appearance in the NCAA tournament. The Golden Rams have been to 10 NCAA championship games and have won two national titles (2002, 2008). West Chester finished as the national runner-up to Adelphi in the last national championship game contested, in 2019.

• In addition to beginning NCAA tournament play as the top-ranked team in this week’s Nike / USA Lacrosse Division II Women's Top 20, UIndy also boasts the nation’s top scoring offense (20.2 goals/game), best scoring defense (4.53 goals/game), and biggest scoring margin (15.67 goals/game).