NEW YORK – Rutgers clinched the last outstanding berth and Denver sewed up the No. 1 seed Saturday to wrap up the final housekeeping items for the 2014 BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Championship presented by New York Life.
Top-seeded Denver will square off with No. 4 Rutgers Thursday at 4:30 p.m., while second seed Marquette battles host and third-seeded Villanova at 7 p.m. in games that will stream live on BIGEAST.com. Saturday’s championship game between the semifinal winners is set for 4:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1.
The Scarlet Knights joined a field that already included the Pioneers, Villanova and Marquette by beating Georgetown 12-8 in Washington, D.C. It was Rutgers’ first victory over the Hoyas in 17 meetings.
The Pioneers used a 9-0 run that spanned the second and third quarters to turn a slim 5-4 advantage into a 14-4 lead in a 17-9 victory over Marquette. Denver claimed the tournament’s top seed in its first year in the conference after going an unbeaten 6-0 in the BIG EAST.
Marquette, in just its second season as a varsity program and first in BIG EAST men’s lacrosse, is the No. 2 seed after posting a 4-2 league record.
Villanova could have been the No. 2 seed, but the Wildcats were stunned 11-10 in overtime by Providence on Saturday. The Wildcats dropped into a three-way tie for third with Rutgers and St. John’s at 3-3 in the conference, but earned the tournament’s No. 3 seed because of tiebreakers. St. John’s was 0-2 against Villanova and Rutgers while the others were 1-1 to drop the Red Storm out of the tiebreaker. Reverting back to head-to-head results between the tied teams, Villanova won at Rutgers earlier in the season to earn the third seed.
2014 BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Tournament Schedule
Thursday, May 1 – Semifinals – Streamed on BIGEAST.com
No. 1 Denver vs. No. 4 Rutgers – 4:30 p.m.
No. 2 Marquette vs. No. 3 Villanova – 7 p.m.
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