WLAX : Syracuse enters NCAA tournament as No. 4 seed, will host Dartmouth in 1st round
Despite a 16-3 record, a Big East regular season championship and being ranked No. 2 in the nation for much of the season, Syracuse earned just the No. 4 seed in the 2012 NCAA tournament with an at-large bid.
Florida, Northwestern and Maryland are the tournament’s one, two and three seeds, respectively. The Orange beat both the Gators and Terrapins on the road during a 15-game winning streak this season and lost to the Wildcats in the third game of the regular season.
SU will open the tournament Sunday at 4 p.m. with a rematch against Dartmouth in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse blew out the Big Green 22-4 on April 9 in the Dome behind four goals from attack Alyssa Murray, and fellow attack Michelle Tumolo finished with a career-high eight points.
The Orange appeared to be on track for a top-two seed heading into the Big East tournament, but a 13-7 loss to Loyola (Md.) on Saturday coupled with a 14-7 victory by Florida over Northwestern caused SU to fall to the No. 4 seed.
Maryland captured the ACC championship with a 14-10 victory over North Carolina in Durham, N.C on April 23 before beating Georgetown 19-10 on April 25 in College Park, Md. to help the Terrapins leapfrog Syracuse for the No. 3 seed.
Should the Orange defeat Dartmouth, SU would host the winner of the game between No. 5 seed North Carolina and Navy the following weekend.
One more victory after that would send Syracuse to the Final Four for the second time in three years after missing the NCAA tournament last season.
