St. Thomas Leads Division II Bracket
ATLANTA – Defending national champion St. Thomas has earned the top seed in the 2017 MCLA Division II National Championship powered by Under Armour and leads a group of four Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference teams to qualify this spring.
The Tommies join No. 6 North Dakota State, No. 7 St. John’s and No. 8 Minn.-Duluth to establish the UMLC as the power conference heading into the tournament.
First-time qualifier Louisiana out of the Lone Star Alliance earned the No. 15 seed and will go head-to-head with Southwestern Lacrosse Conference power Concordia-Irvine.
No. 3 Sierra Nevada out of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League earned its highest seed at nationals this year and the Eagles will face off against the last at-large entrant in Palm Beach Atlantic out of the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference.
Montana, the 2007 Division II national champions, return to the field this year as champions of the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League and the 13th-seeded Grizzlies will have their hands full with No. 4 Dayton out of Central Collegiate Lacrosse League.
Grand Valley State from the CCLA, last year’s runner-up, snags the No. 5 seed and will grapple with Pioneer College Lacrosse League champ Bridgewater State in the first round.
Metro State, another first-time entrant out of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference, finds itself up against sixth-seed NDSU while the SLC’s Cal State Fullerton matches up with St. John’s in the No. 10-7 meeting.
The final first round pairing features SELC champion Florida Gulf Coast against Duluth in the always-competitive No. 8-9 pairing.
For information about tickets and lodging for the 2017 MCLA National Championships powered by Under Armour, please visit the national championship site.
2017 MCLA Division II National Championship Field
#16 Missouri State (13-6) vs. #1 St. Thomas (12-2)
#15 Louisiana (11-2) vs. #2 Concordia-Irvine (16-1)
#14 Palm Beach Atlantic (8-5) vs. #3 Sierra Nevada (11-3)
#13 Montana (13-5) vs. #4 Dayton (9-4)
#12 Bridgewater State (12-1) vs. #5 Grand Valley State (7-4)
#11 Metro State (10-3) vs. #6 North Dakota State (7-5)
#10 Cal State Fullerton (11-3) vs. #7 St. John’s (6-7)
#9 Florida Gulf Coast (10-4) vs. # 8 Minn.-Duluth (8-6)