Free Fallin' for W. Lax

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The road back to the Final Four  just got a whole lot harder for the women's lacrosse team.

The last three years Penn received a top four seed to the NCAA Tournament, guaranteeing it a home game in the first and second rounds.  However, Sunday night when the 2010 bracket was announced, not only did the Quakers (14-3) -- ranked No. 4 in the media poll and No. 6 in the coaches poll -- not get a top four seed, they fell all the way to the eight line. They'll play unseeded Boston University in the first round of the NCAAs Saturday. Due to graduation festivities at Franklin Field, the game will be played at Immaculata University in Malvern, Pa., about 40 minutes from Penn's campus.

With the drop in seed, Penn's chances of making its fourth straight Final Four certainly took a hit. Assuming they pass the Terriers (11-8), the Quakers will almost certainly face No. 1 Maryland (18-1) in the second round at College Park, Md. The Terrapins beat the Quakers at Franklin Field earlier this year, 12-6, and only lost to North Carolina (15-2), who earned the Tournament's No. 3 seed. Five-time defending National Champion Northwestern (17-1) got the two seed while Virginia, still grieving the loss of murdered senior Yeardley Love, got the six seed.

Nationally speaking there was a mixed response to Penn's seeding. One Inside Lacrosse post called it "a little bit of a surprise" that Penn fell to the eight seed. However, a separate post on the site "Liked" that Penn got the eight seed:

The committee placed Penn in a solid position, not too high and not unseeded. As it turns out, they have not beaten a team in the tournament, which keeps them low, but they only had, subsequently, three chances with Maryland, Northwestern and North Carolina. It is not their fault that the rest of the Ivy League did not get a bid, and they had wins against bubble squads Dartmouth and Hofstra. Good place to put the Quakers.

"I was pretty shocked that we got the eight seed," senior captain Ali DeLuca said. "I think we all are."

Though the Quakers do have a history of being underseeded -- "After four years we still never get recognition" DeLuca said -- the drop from No. 4 in the media poll to the No. 8 seed certainly was the biggest drop the team has experienced come selection day.

Penn -- which hasn't played since it won the Ivy League Tournament last Sunday -- got leapfrogged by two teams that had impressive runs in their respective conference tournaments this week.  Georgetown (13-5), who was ranked ninth in both polls at the start of the week, jumped to the No. 4 seed after winning its first ever Big East Tournament title over No. 11 Syracuse Saturday. James Madison (16-2), meanwhile, was ranked No. 7 in the polls and won the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament with a 10-6 win over No. 16 Hofstra.

Another factor is that this year was a down year for the Ivy League. Not only did Princeton fail to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 1997, but the Tigers had a a losing season for the first time since coach Chris Sailer's inaugural year in 1987. Dartmouth, ranked No. 10 by the media and No. 12 in the coaches poll, had the best chance of an Ivy for at-large bid, but failed to earn one. With the Big Green out of the tournament, Penn's two wins over the Big Green -- the Quakers' only victories over a top 15 opponent -- were devalued.

In fact the lack of a quality victory was the third and perhaps deciding factor in Penn's fall. Though the Quakers only lost to the top three teams in the tournament, albeit by a combined 35-20, those three teams were the only chances Penn had at earning a truly quality victory. So while Penn only lost those three nonconference games, that just wasn't good enough this year.

As DeLuca summed it up "It was a combination of the Ivy League [being] not as good and us losing to those three teams... We don't have a big win or a bad loss."

The Quakers must move past the seeding slight and focus on the Terriers. Ironically, just like the underseeding, Penn is quite familiar with BU in May. This is the third time in four years the teams have faced off in the NCAAs. The current seniors faced BU in the first round as freshmen, winning 11-5 at Rhodes Field in the first round. (Coincidentally, Maryland awaited them in the second round just like this year.) Then in 2008, the Quakers won 8-5 in the second round at Franklin Field.

"They're always a fun team to play," DeLuca said of the Terriers. "After two years I'm sure they'll be out for revenge."

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(Here's the complete bracket.)