Head Coach Pat Genovese

May 3, 2002

GENEVA, N.Y.—The William Smith College lacrosse team will learn its postseason fate when the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament Selection Show airs at 9 p.m., on May 5. The show is available exclusively on the Internet at ncaachampionships.com.

The 2002 tournament field will include 18 teams, two more than last season. Eleven bids are reserved for automatic qualifying conferences (Pool A), five more are allocated for true independents and teams in conferences that do not have an AQ (Pool B), and the remaining two spots will go to teams from automatic qualifying conferences that didn’t win their league (Pool C). The Herons will look to secure one of the two Pool C bids.

William Smith finished the regular season with a 13-1 record and is ranked sixth in the nation. The Herons’ lone loss was to Union, an 11-10 overtime decision that kept William Smith from claiming its first conference championship.

If the Herons are selected to play in the tournament, it would be the program’s 14th bid in the past 16 seasons. Last season, William Smith missed the tournament for the first time since 1990, despite a 13-2 regular season. The program, under the leadership of Head Coach Pat Genovese, has reached the NCAA semifinals 10 times, including five trips to the NCAA Championship game. Genovese has more wins (278) than any other head coach in women’s lacrosse history.

The Herons main competitors for a Pool C bid are the second place team from the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) and the runner up in the Centennial Conference. The NESCAC hosts its league championship tournament this weekend. Should the regular season standings hold up, top-ranked and undefeated Middlebury would receive the AQ and third-ranked Amherst would be 12-2.

No. 11 Gettysburg upset No. 9 Ursinus in the Centennial Conference Championship game last weekend, leaving the 14-2 Bears hoping for a Pool C bid.

Amherst would appear to be a lock for the first bid, sporting a 6-2 record against teams currently ranked in the IWLCA top-20. William Smith is 4-1 against top-20 teams with wins over No. 7 Cortland, No. 17 Ithaca, No. 18 Rochester, and No. 19 Skidmore, while Ursinus is just 2-2 against the top-20.

Every other team in Pool C, with one exception, has at least four losses. The one sleeper/spoiler in Pool C is Williams College. The Ephs are 9-3 and in third place in the NESCAC. They’ll play Amherst in Saturday’s NESCAC semifinals. Should Williams upend the Jeffs, and Middlebury, the Ephs would earn the league’s AQ and Middlebury would almost certainly gain a Pool C bid, effectively eliminating Amherst because the NCAA is unlikely to award one conference three bids.

To watch Sunday’s selection show, viewers must have at least a 28.8 Kbps connection to the Internet, and Real Player or Windows Media Player.

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