ESPN Begins Coverage of NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship

ESPN will provide exclusive coverage of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship Presented by Northwestern Mutual, beginning with the preliminary round today, Wednesday, May 11, from the campus of Quinnipiac in Hamden, Conn., on ESPN3, followed by first-round action on Saturday, May 14, and Sunday May 15, at eight campus sites across the country. The championship will continue with the quarterfinals on Saturday, May 21 in Providence, R.I., and Sunday, May 22 in Columbus, Ohio, and concluding with the semifinals on Saturday, May 28, and the national title game on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The first-round matchups, announced during Sunday's NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Selection Special, will air on ESPNU, with the quarterfinals on ESPNU and ESPN2. The semifinals and title game will air on ESPN2.

ESPN has covered the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship since 2007, and the 2016 season marks the 22nd consecutive year that the network has provided complete coverage of championship weekend.

The top eight seeds will serve as host sites on Saturday, May 14, and Sunday, May 15, for all first round games and will all air on ESPNU.

Maryland earned the No. 1 overall SEED and will host the winner of a preliminary-round game between Quinnipiac and Hartford (May 11, 4 p.m. on ESPN3) on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Defending national champions and No. 2 SEED Denver will face the winner of the other preliminary-round game between Towson and Hobart at 3 p.m., also on Sunday. No. 4 SEED Yale, who won the Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament, will take on Navy Sunday at 5:15 p.m. Following that matchup, ACC Champion and No. 8 SEED Syracuse will play Albany at 7:30 p.m.

The first round begins Saturday and features matchups between No. 7 Loyola (Md.) and Duke at noon, followed at 2:30 p.m. by North Carolina at No. 6 SEED Marquette, which took home the BIG EAST Conference title. No. 5 SEED Brown will face Johns Hopkins at 5 p.m., followed by No. 3 SEED Notre Dame against Air Force at 7 p.m.

The 18-team field, which includes two preliminary-round games, comes from 10 automatic bids and eight at-large bids. The complete bracket can be seen here.

ESPN's commentators for the Men's Lacrosse Championship are led by former college lacrosse standouts Eamon McAnaney (Notre Dame), Quint Kessenich (Johns Hopkins) and Paul Carcaterra (Syracuse). Kessenich and Carcaterra both won national titles with their respective schools.

McAnaney and Carcaterra will be on site for Johns Hopkins/Brown and Navy/Yale, before being joined by Kessenich, who is serving as an in-studio analyst alongside host Anish Shroff for the first rounds. The trio will be in Columbus, Ohio, for the quarterfinals before heading to Philadelphia for championship weekend.

Jon Torpey, head coach of the men's lacrosse team at High Point, will join Anish and Kessenich in-studio for the first round.

Matt Ward, a former Virginia attackman and recipient of the 2006 Tewaaraton Award, will also be on the call through the quarterfinals, with play-by-play from Chris Cotter during the first-round matchup between Air Force and Notre Dame. Ward will then travel to Providence, R.I. to call the quarterfinals with Mike Corey.