Overachieving Bryant lacrosse team is bound for NCAAs

PROJO: OVERACHIEVING BRYANT LACROSSE TEAM IS BOUND FOR NCAAS

Courtesy of the Providence Journal

SMITHFIELD — There's a lot of things you can say about the Bryant University lacrosse team.

You can say they're the first team since Bryant moved up to the Division I level to qualify for an NCAA tournament.

After which, you can say wholeheartedly: "Congratulations!"

The laxers' late-season surge to the Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament titles caps an incredible athletic year at Bryant, where the basketball team made a turnaround that captured national attention and the NEC-leading baseball team had a 19-game winning streak this spring.

But there are some people who might say that the Bryant lacrosse team doesn't really belong in the NCAA tournament because they have a record of 8-10, played just one team (13th-seed Albany) in the 16-team field — and lost, and also lost one-goal games to both Brown and Providence College, neither of which was an NCAA-caliber team this season.

You also could say that the Bulldogs, as the No. 16 seed, have virtually no chance to win their first-round game Sunday against No. 1 Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

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