1. The NCAA Division I men's and women's lacrosse quarterfinals are set, and the buzz is palpable.
On the men's side, Duke plays third-seeded Ohio State and fifth-seeded Denver meets fourth-seeded Notre Dame in Hempstead, N.Y., on Saturday. Eighth-seeded Albany and top-seeded Maryland face off in a much-anticipated quarterfinal Sunday in Newark, Del., where Towson and second-seeded Syracuse also will vie for a chance to advance to the NCAA semifinals Memorial Day weekend in Foxborough, Mass.
Here's how they got here:
The women's quarterfinals will be played at campus sites. On Saturday, top-seeded Maryland hosts eighth-seeded Stony Brook, USC visits Boston College and Navy, the Cinderella story of the tournament so far, will travel to second-seeded North Carolina. Fourth-seeded Penn State hosts fifth-seeded Princeton on Sunday. The winners also will advance to Foxborough, as for the first time the NCAA Division I men's and women's championships will be held at the same site, Gillette Stadium.
Here's the updated women's bracket:
Our photographers captured the best of the first round.
2. US Lacrosse has selected 59 players to try out for the 2018 U.S. men's national team. The first round of tryouts will be held July 10-12 at the new U.S. national teams training center at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.
The star-studded list of mostly Major League Lacrosse standouts also includes two current collegians — NCAA quarterfinals opponents Sergio Perkovic of Notre Dame and Trevor Baptiste of Denver. Twenty of the 59 players have previous Team USA experience with the indoor, senior and/or U19 squads.
3. Cal's Max McKone and St. Thomas' Andrew Sotis won the Godekeraw Award, presented by US Lacrosse to the top scholar-athletes in each division of the MCLA.
McKone led MCLA Division I in goals (68) while also leading the Bears to the MCLA semifinals. He has a 3.76 GPA and mentors inner-city youth with the Oakland Lacrosse Club.
Sotis had 31 goals and 14 assists for the Tommies, who advanced to the MCLA Division II championship game. He spent the last two summers building housing and caring for orphaned HIV-positive children in Guatemala.
4. Navy's Julia Collins and Syracuse's Evan Molloy were named the Epoch/US Lacrosse Players of the Week for their starring roles in their teams' respective NCAA tournament first-round victories.
5. NLL-MLL crossover players Kevin Crowley and Curtis Dickson, among others, have made an instant impact upon their return to their pro field lacrosse franchises, writes Phil Shore. Speaking of the overlap between pro leagues, NLL commissioner Nick Sakiewicz and MLL commissioner David Gross will headline the Lacrosse Industry Summit on May 26 in Boston.