Division I Rewind: Attendance Records, Hopkins Heroes and Road Warriors

National rankings are love-‘em-or-hate-‘em creatures. Some fans love to argue over them, others would rather ignore them and let the results on the field do the talking.

For the latter group, a preseason poll might seem completely pointless. New year, new teams, and who really knows what’s going to happen.

All completely fair conjectures.

But you know what preseason rankings in particular do exceptionally well? They delineate expectations and are immune to whatever spin develops as teams trundle or lumber or saunter or cruise through their schedules.

Like it or not, Maryland was an extremely popular preseason No. 1, coming in there in the USA Lacrosse Magazine, Inside Lacrosse and USILA rankings earlier this year. The Terrapins missed the tournament. Those expectations were not met.

But Maryland aside? This year’s quarterfinal contingent doesn’t have a ton of surprises.

In the three preseason polls, Syracuse’s average placement was 2.3. Princeton (2.7), Georgetown (4.7), North Carolina (6.3), Notre Dame (7.0) and Penn State (7.7) were all top-10 fixtures. Even Duke (10.0) was no lower than 11th in any of the tabulations.

That’s seven of the teams that made it out of the first weekend of the tournament. The surviving surprise team is Johns Hopkins, which was 15th in the Inside Lacrosse prognostication and 17th in the other two. When the Blue Jays, the bluest of bluebloods, is the upstart of the bunch, it can’t be too wacky of a season.

An alternate phrasing: It’s going to be a quarterfinal weekend with most of the usual suspects.

SPIDERS LOSE, RICHMOND WINS

Richmond arguably suffered its most agonizing loss in its 13 seasons of lacrosse on Saturday, giving up the final five goals in a 14-12 loss to Duke. A year after making the quarterfinals for the first time, the Spiders (14-2) let a game slip away on their home field.

It clearly stung coach Dan Chemotti as he searched for words to process the sudden end of an otherwise sparkling season. But he — and everyone else at Robins Stadium — recognized how remarkable the evening really was.

The crowd of 6,805 was the largest first-round attendance figure in NCAA tournament history, besting the 6,472 in the rain at Casey Stadium for North Carolina and host UAlbany in 2017. It was the payoff for building a strong program, for making a postseason breakthrough, for taking an undefeated record into April and for fostering a strong lacrosse community for nearly a decade and a half.

There are parallels between Richmond and Albany. Both are annual conference title contenders. Neither is in a power conference but have managed to schedule ambitiously when it is warranted. Both have coaches well-suited to their schools and communities — Scott Marr with the Great Danes, Chemotti with the Spiders. And neither is too far from a more traditional power but have etched out a distinct niche for themselves.

And now Richmond has put down a marker on what its support can look like in May. Granted, a lot went well Saturday — a 7:30 game on a gorgeous spring evening against a brand-name opponent. But the Spiders drew two more of the top 36 on-campus crowds this season. The only other programs with three were Syracuse (eight), Maryland (five), Virginia (five), Johns Hopkins (four) and North Carolina (three). Good company.

Saturday could be a glimpse of what’s to come. Special as Richmond’s senior class was — “transformational” was Chemotti’s description — the Spiders remain deep and sound. They’ll play host to a quarterfinal doubleheader in 2028. No one should discount the possibility the home team will be a participant.

The sport needs new markets where excitement for the sport is palpable; that’s part of what made Denver’s rise in the early 2010s under Bill Tierney so electrifying, and it’s one of the reasons that UAlbany reclaiming a place as a postseason regular the last three years is so important. Richmond shows all the signs of being a program that delivers something similar. Saturday could well just be the start.

CHART OF THE WEEKEND I: DISCONNECT FOUR

No. 4 seeds have lost almost as many games (six) in the first round since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2003 as have Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 seeds combined (eight). Richmond became the third No. 4 seed in four years to bow out in the opening weekend.

CHART OF THE WEEKEND II: OUT GO THE CHAMPS

Cornell’s loss to Johns Hopkins marks the 12th time the defending tournament champion did not reach the quarterfinals the following season, including the 10th time in the last 22 tournaments.

CHART OF THE WEEKEND III: FRESH AYERS AMONG HOPKINS OT LEGENDS

Jimmy Ayers scored Johns Hopkins’ seventh all-time NCAA tournament overtime goal and the first since 2018. A full look at the Blue Jays’ sudden-death postseason game-winners over the years:

CHART OF THE WEEKEND IV: ROAD WARRIORS

Georgetown became the fifth team to win road games in the first round of back-to-back tournaments since the opening weekend moved away from predetermined sites in 2003 and the first to do so since 2016-17. A look at the company the Hoyas are keeping after their 14-10 victory at Virginia.

*-advanced to semifinals

EIGHT GAMES, EIGHT STARS

A Dominic Pietramala, North Carolina: The redshirt junior had an all-timer of a day, scoring 10 goals on 16 shots in the Tar Heels’ 24-6 pounding of UAlbany. He set the NCAA tournament and North Carolina single-game goals mark, along with the Tar Heels’ career goals record during his prodigious afternoon.

A Hunter Aquino, Penn State: Collected three goals and an assist in a 10-6 victory over Army. Plus, he didn’t have a turnover in a game that featured 35 of them.

D Luke Martin, Johns Hopkins: It would have been impressive enough if he “just” held Cornell’s Willem Firth to a goal. But he also caused five turnovers and his sprawling play to back up a shot that caromed off the post while drawing a push from Firth helped extend an overtime possession that eventually culminated in the game-winning goal.

FO Cal Girard, Duke: The junior won 21 of 27 faceoffs and collected a career-high 16 ground balls to help keep the Blue Devils’ offense on the field in a 14-12 defeat of Richmond.

G Thomas Ricciardelli, Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish had a smooth offensive day Sunday against Jacksonville, but Ricciardelli limited the Dolphins to three goals in more than 50 minutes while making 16 saves.

A Chad Palumbo, Princeton: The senior has matched the school record for goals in an NCAA tournament game in his last two postseason outings. He had six against Syracuse in last year’s quarterfinals, then dropped six on Marist on Sunday as the Tigers opened their NCAA stay.

G Jimmy McCool, Syracuse: Stuffed Cole Cashion with 25 seconds left for his 17th save of the day as the Orange survived a comeback from Yale to make the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season.

D Ty Banks, Georgetown: Limited McCabe Millon to a goal and two assists and caused three turnovers as the Hoyas repeatedly derailed Virginia’s offense in a turnover-filled 14-10 victory in Charlottesville.

TEWAARATON WATCH

A Owen Duffy, North Carolina: The junior did not play against UAlbany because of a lower-body injury suffered in the ACC title game.

A Willem Firth, Cornell: The junior scored once to match a season low as the Big Red fell in overtime to Johns Hopkins. Firth concluded his season with 52 goals and 29 assists.

A Nate Kabiri, Princeton: Had three goals and five assists in a 17-8 rout of Marist and is up to 76 points (35 goals, 41 assists) on the year.

D Shawn Lyght, Notre Dame: Silenced Jacksonville attackman Jack Taylor, who had a goal on nine shots while committing three turnovers. The Fighting Irish dispatched the Dolphins 18-5.

A Joey Spallina, Syracuse: It was a 2-2 line for No. 22 in his final game at the Dome as the Orange outlasted Yale to move into the quarterfinals for the third year in a row. Spallina has 32 goals and 47 assists on the season.

BRING ON THE REMATCHES

Unlike the first weekend of the tournament, when there were no regular season rematches, there is plenty of familiarity in the quarterfinal pairings.

Princeton has lost only once since dropping its season opener 13-7 to Penn State. The top-seeded Tigers will try to avoid bookend losses to the eighth-seeded Nittany Lions, who won the only postseason meeting between the schools in the first round of the 2023 tournament.

Third-seeded North Carolina has taken two games from sixth-seeded Syracuse this season, most recently a 12-10 triumph in the ACC semifinals on May 1. It is the seventh NCAA tournament meeting for the schools, but the first since the Orange’s 19-12 victory in the 1996 quarterfinals.

Neither Notre Dame-Johns Hopkins nor Duke-Georgetown are repeats of earlier this season, but there’s some recent postseason history in both series. Notre Dame earned a 12-9 victory over Hopkins in the 2023 quarterfinals on the way to its first national title, and Georgetown beat Duke in Durham 16-12 last year. Plus, the Hoyas had to go through the Blue Devils to earn their lone semifinal trip to date in 1999.