Welcome to the Gameday Guide.

Every weekend during the college lacrosse season, US Lacrosse Magazine staff will riff here on the juiciest matchups, trendiest topics, biggest storylines and hottest takes.

We’re deviating from the norm for this week’s edition of the Gameday Guide.

Instead of diving into the typical categories — Game of the Week, Upset Alert, etc. — it’s best to give a general overview of the postseason action on tap for this weekend. After all, the playoffs are generally the time of year when anything can happen. Any game could be the game of the week.

This weekend, we’ll see the culmination of the conference tournaments in the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big South, Big Ten and MPSF (which does not have an AQ into the NCAA tournament). The MAAC will play its quarterfinal round before Thursday’s semifinals and next Sunday’s championship game.

The quest for teams on the bubble of the NCAA tournament to earn the coveted automatic qualifier races on this weekend. While Northwestern, the top seed in the Big Ten tournament, is essentially assured an NCAA bid regardless of how it fares against Rutgers in Friday’s semifinal, a win for Rutgers — one of the more intriguing bubble teams — could propel the Scarlet Knights into May Madness.

With so much on the line, this is sure to be a stellar weekend of women’s lacrosse.

As always, check out our TV Listings page for the entire list of games coming up.

GAMES TO WATCH
All times Eastern

ACC

Each of the four teams that played in Friday’s semifinals — North Carolina, Syracuse, Boston College and Notre Dame — will be in the NCAA tournament. There’s no question about that.

UNC cruised past Notre Dame 18-4 Friday afternoon, an incredible turnaround after the Irish took the Tar Heels down to the wire just a few weeks earlier. It doesn’t look like there’s a team in the ACC that can truly run with North Carolina. Sunday’s championship game is the conference’s last chance before NCAA tournament play begins.

Atlantic 10

The lacrosse world was robbed of another potentially thrilling UMass-Richmond matchup in an Atlantic 10 championship game, as Saint Joseph’s ousted the Spiders Friday afternoon — and it wasn’t close.

Stephanie Kelly had seven assists in the 19-8 win, a massive resume booster for a Hawks team currently on the outside looking in of the NCAA tournament. They had yet to register a signature win, though this one certainly qualifies.

It’s likely the A-10 is just a one-bid conference, so there should be even more excitement in the air during Sunday’s title game.

Big South

The Big South runs through High Point, the top seed and tournament host. But it’s Radford that made history Friday afternoon, earning its first-ever Big South tournament win with a 15-14 victory over Campbell. Ava Goeller had a career-high six goals in the win.

Radford is hoping to ride that wave into the title game, as the Big South is most certainly a one-bid conference. Radford beat Winthrop in the regular season but lost big to High Point. Friday’s other semifinal will determine which of the two Radford matches up against Sunday.

Big Ten

This is perhaps the most intriguing conference in the country. How many NCAA tournament teams will the Big Ten get? Northwestern is a lock, and it looks like Johns Hopkins and Maryland are both going to get in, too.

But what about Rutgers, a team on a hot streak? Penn State might have lost Thursday night to Hopkins in the quarterfinals, but the Nittany Lions beat Maryland twice. Does that count come tourney time? Ohio State has played spoiler this spring, too.

A team like Rutgers needs another signature win, as mentioned above, so the Scarlet Knights stand to gain the most from both a win over Northwestern and the overall conference title.

MPSF

There’s no AQ on the line in this conference, but UC Davis, San Diego State and Fresno State still have something to play for.

UC Davis is the top seed, earning a bye until Saturday’s title game. The Aggies are 11-4 this season, but the program has never won an MPSF title. That could change this weekend.

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