Lehigh named Patriot League Lacrosse Champ after Loyola Withdraws due to COVID

[ngineer]

Lehigh beat Colgate, 13-9 on Friday night to advance to the PL finals today was supposed to play Loyola who defeated Army, 12-11, after Army stormed back from a 12-8 deficit in the fourth quarter. Announced this a.m. that Loyola was withdrawing due to a Tier 1 personnel testing positive for COVID. Lehigh entered the tournament as the #1 seed and had reached as high as #6 in the national rankings until a late season loss to Villanova. They finish the regular season and playoffs with an 11-1 record and will find out their seeding an opponent/site this evening. Last time the Mountain Hawks qualified for the the NCAA's was 2013.

[ngineer]

Lehigh gets the #8 seed and will face Big Ten Rutgers in the first round on May 15 at U of Virginia. Winner of that game will likely get #1 UNC.

[ngineer]

PL runner-up Loyola used it's at-large entry to good measure and beat #7 Denver on Sunday to move to the quarterfinals on Saturday against #2 Duke. Denver missed on a point blank shot in the last five seconds as at the Loyola goalie made a spectacular save to keep the game from going into OT, winning 14-13. Lehigh lost to Rutgers in the first round, sorely missing it's leading scorer Scheller due to a shoulder injury in the PL semifinal. Team was out of sync the whole time, some though attributed to Rutgers tough ride. The "May-hem" continues with quarterfinals next weekend. Semis and Finals Memorial Day weekend (Saturday and Monday).