Weekend One-Liners: What to Watch for in Women's Lacrosse

One team will punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament this weekend. The ACC championship takes place Sunday in Charlotte, N.C. Who will be there? We’ll know by end of business (EOB, for people who don’t work in sports) on the East Coast on Friday.

The sport’s other blue-blood conference, the Big Ten, kicks off its championship with the quarterfinals Saturday. The new No. 1 in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20 will not be in action, though. To the victor go the spoils — outright regular-season champion Northwestern earned a bye.

Elsewhere, Loyola has a chance to win the outright regular-season Patriot League crown, and a rivalry game is going down on Long Island.

There’s only one thing better than late-April lacrosse, and that’s May lacrosse. We’ll flip the calendar Monday. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend. All times Eastern.

TV LISTINGS | NIKE/USA LACROSSE TOP 20

ACC Semifinal: No. 7 Notre Dame (13-4) vs. No. 4 Boston College (14-3) – Friday, 1 p.m. (ACCN)

The Irish have won five straight since getting nipped by Boston College 12-11 on April 8.

UPSET ALERT

ACC Semifinal: No. 6 North Carolina (13-3) vs. No. 2 Syracuse (16-1) –  Friday, 3 p.m. (ACCN)

Syracuse took the regular season meeting 14-12, but don’t discount the six-time defending ACC champs in April — particularly in their home state.

No. 9 Loyola (13-2) at Navy (12-4) – Friday, 6 p.m. (CBSSN)

The Greyhounds haven’t lost a regular season Patriot League game since 2013 and will go for their seventh straight outright regular season title on national TV. (Note: A Patriot League regular-season champion wasn’t determined in 2020 or 2021.)

No. 19 USC (13-3) at Arizona State (5-11) – Friday, 6 p.m. (ASU)

No. 19 USC pulled no punches in a dominant 17-6 St. Patty’s Day win and goes for the regular-season sweep against the team that knocked it out of the Pac-12 championship last year.

Hofstra (4-10) at No. 10 Stony Brook (11-3) – Friday, 6:31 p.m. (LacrosseTV)

Long Islanders will see what the host Stony Brook did there with the time.

Mercer (14-2) at Campbell (11-5) – Saturday, 1 p.m. (ESPN+)

High Point stole Campbell’s bid for a perfect Big South record, so the Camels will try to do the same to Mercer (and clinch a share of the conference crown and top seed).

No. 3 Denver (16-0) at Marquette (15-1) – Saturday, 1 p.m. (FloSports)

Denver goes for perfection, while Marquette tries to steal the Big East regular season title, which would be a first for a program having a historic season of its own.

Big Ten Quarterfinal: No. 18 Penn State (11-5) at No. 17 Michigan (12-6) – Saturday, 12 p.m. (BTN+)

The Wolverines haven’t played since losing to Johns Hopkins on April 13, so they’ll either look well-rested or rusty when playing a Penn State team that just saw its bid for a Big Ten home game fall short with a loss to Hopkins.

Rutgers (7-8) at No. 16 Johns Hopkins (8-7) – Saturday, 1 p.m. (Centennial Conference Digital Network)

Upset wins over Penn State and Michigan and an overtime win over Towson have the Blue Jays with momentum at the right time and a home game in the Big Ten championship.

Big Ten Quarterfinal: Ohio State (5-11) at No. 11 Maryland (12-5) – Saturday, 4:30 p.m. (BTN+)

Eloise Clevenger dished eight assists when Maryland took the regular-season meeting 18-7 on April 8 — I’m not expecting a much different score this week.

GAME OF THE WEEK

ACC Championship Game – Sunday, 12 p.m. (ACCN)

We may not know the teams, but there’s no doubt that the finals of the premiere conference in 2023 Division I women’s lacrosse is the most anticipated game of the year.