Hofstra Men's Lacrosse Has High Hopes For 5th Straight NCAA Appearance and More Next Year

Hofstra men’s lacrosse head coach Seth Tierney will be taking in the Final Four in Baltimore Saturday and after guiding the Pride to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances he hopes to soon to be coaching on Memorial Day weekend. 

This season Tierney became the first Hofstra men’s lacrosse coach to lead the program to the NCAAs four straight years. Like the previous three attempts Hofstra, fell in the first round to a tough opponent on the road and Tierney is hopeful that going forward the Pride can continue its tourney streak and position themselves with a better opening draw perhaps in the comforts of Shuart Stadium. 

“With one milestone becomes another goal that we would like to start to reach but one thing that has been a little bit difficult at times is the draw when we get in the tournament,” said Tierney. “Part of the formula to see if you can get to the next round is to get the highest possible seed going into the tournament itself.”

Hofstra’s four straight opening round tournament loss this year was a 12-5 setback at Johns Hopkins on May 14. The previous three NCAA Tournament losses were on the road to Maryland, Cornell and Johns Hopkins, all storied programs. 

Coaches Laud Hofstra For Operations of NCAA Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinals

 Courtesy Hofstra Athletic Communications

 ShuartStadium was packed for the 2011 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinals.

Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium was showcased before a national audience Saturday during ESPN2’s coverage of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals and the coaches involved raved about the atmosphere and how well the event was run.

The quarterfinal doubleheader, which featured Virginia defeating Cornell and Denver topping Johns Hopkins, drew a Shuart Stadium record 13,447 fans. The previous record was 12,292 in the 1999 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals when Johns Hopkins topped Hofstra and Georgetown downed Loyola.

Saturday was Denver head coach Bill Tierney’s sixth appearance at Hofstra in the quarterfinals going back to his days when he coached at Princeton.

“I’ve run [quarterfinals] at Princeton, I’ve been to them all over the country, when you come here you are treated special,” said Tierney, who had previously appeared with Princeton at Hofstra for the quarterfinals in 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2009. “The people at Hofstra are unbelievable.”

Plenty of Optimism for Another Successful Lacrosse Quarterfinals at Hofstra

 Courtesy Hofstra Athletic Communications

Shuart Stadium during the 2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinals.

While there is disappointment that Hofstra will not be taking part in this Saturday’s NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals at Shuart Stadium after dropping its first round game at third-seeded Johns Hopkins, there is still great optimism for the event and the exposure it will bring the university. 

“We certainly wanted to play in it but once that wasn’t the case we  continued to put every effort into making sure it is a great event,” said Hofstra Director of Athletics Jack Hayes. “We want to get it back as often as we can so we have done everything we can to promote it and we certainly have quality teams coming in with two great matchups.”

Both games of Saturday’s quarterfinal doubleheader featuring Cornell against Virginia and Johns Hopkins versus Denver will be televised nationally on ESPN2. As of the end of Thursday nearly 10,000 tickets had been sold and Hayes is hopeful that attendance will exceed two years ago when 11,259 packed Shuart Stadium to see a quarterfinal doubleheader featuring Syracuse against Maryland and Cornell versus Princeton.

Hofstra Softball's NCAA Chances Slim After Dropping CAA Championship to Georgia State

The Hofstra softball team entered this afternoon’s Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament finals needing only one win over Georgia State to clinch its eighth trip to the NCAAs in nine years. Unfortunately for the Pride the CAA title hopes came crashing down with two close defeats to the Bulldogs and now their 2011 season is more than likely over as well.

Despite being 40-13, Hofstra head coach Bill Edwards said following the Pride’s 2-0 CAA title game loss to Georgia State that they likely don’t have the resume to receive an NCAA at-large bid due to not picking up enough quality non-conference wins. Hofstra entered the CAA Tournament ranked 54 in the RPI.

“I’d be very shocked,” said Coach Edwards of his team’s at-large chances following the CAA title game loss where Georgia State scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. “We had some games early that we had to win that we very competitive in but didn’t win.”

Hofstra Men's Lacrosse Looks To Make History at Johns Hopkins

For the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team to reach its first Final Four in program history the Pride will need to start by doing something it has never done before; win at Homewood Field.

After a stressful few days following Hofstra’s 10-9 Colonial Athletic Association semifinal loss to Delaware last Wednesday finding out if they would receive an at-large bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament, the Pride (13-2) drew third-seed Johns Hopkins when the selections were announced Sunday night. Hofstra has had some recent success with Johns Hopkins winning three of its last six meetings but has never won at the Blue Jays' home field in Baltimore. One of those losses at Johns Hopkins was a 10-4 setback in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament when key Hofstra seniors such as Jay Card, Mike Skudin and Steven DeNapoli were freshmen.

“It’s less about the field and more about the tradition and what Hopkins has done in the past,” said Hofstra men’s lacrosse head coach Seth Tierney of the challenge opposing teams face at Homewood Field. “They have a lot of great traditions there.”

A Signature Win For Hofstra Baseball

The Hofstra baseball team’s 5-0 upset of 14th-ranked Miami Sunday was a signature win for the program and one that head coach Patrick Anderson expects to carry some confidence into next season.

Hofstra’s shutout of the Hurricanes, a program that has captured four national titles, represented the highest ranked opponent the Pride had ever beaten, eclipsing a victory over 15th-ranked Old Dominion on April 7, 2006. Anderson, who has been Hofstra’s head baseball coach since 2009 and served as an assistant in Hempstead from 1998 to 2001, said the only other win he has experienced with the program that compares to the Miami triumph was a victory at Virginia Tech on April 8, 1999.

Hofstra Men's Lacrosse Has NCAA Fate Out Of Its Hands

After falling to Delaware 10-9 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) semifinals Wednesday evening, the Hofstra men’ lacrosse team has left its NCAA Tournament hopes in the hands of others and will be crossing fingers for results in some key games this weekend to break their way leading into Selection Sunday.

Despite being 13-2, the Pride will be on the bubble in its bid to be apart of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year. On the positive side Hofstra is ranked 12th in the current RPI rankings compiled by laxpower.com, ahead of potential competing bubble teams such as North Carolina (13), Penn (14) and Loyola (15). Hofstra also currently has four wins over the RPI top 20 including UMass (16), Colgate  (17), Princeton (18) and Penn State (20), according to laxpower. However one negative that could hurt Hofstra’s chances is having being rated 38th in  strength of schedule, which one of the criteria the Selection Committee uses when determining who receives bids.

Hofstra men's lacrosse vs. Delaware in-game blog

The eighth-ranked Hofstra men’s lacrosse team will try and move a step closer to a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title when it battles Delaware in the conference semifinals Wednesday evening.

Hofstra (13-1) suffered its only loss of the regular season at Delaware on March 19 7-6. The Pride are coming off a 9-4 win over Penn State Saturday night that clinched the top seed in the CAA Tournament. If Hofstra wins Wednesday it will host the winner of the other CAA semifinal between Penn State and UMass on Saturday.

Hofstra is looking for its first CAA title since 2008 when the Pride rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final two minutes to beat Drexel in double overtime. Delaware is the defending CAA champions as the Blue Hens upset top-seeded Towson 12-9 in last year’s league title game.

Check in with "Inside the Pride" for live updates of Hofstra’s quest to reach the CAA title game 15 minutes before faceoff Wednesay at 6:45 p.m. Comments and questions are also welcome and encouraged during the live in-game blog.