04/30/2025
Headline: Army Lax Teams Moves on to Patriot League Playoffs
By Seth Mendelson for CaMMVetsMedia
Onward to the playoffs!
That is what is about to happen to both the Army men’s and women’s lacrosse teams as the squads get ready for the start of their respective Patriot League postseason tournaments and the opportunity to qualify for the Holy Grail of college lacrosse: the NCAA tournament.
Both squads have first-round byes in the Patriot League playoffs. The No. 19-ranked women’s team earned that right with eight straight victories, including a non-league victory over highly-ranked Stanford in late March, a victory over Navy and a 17-16 victory over Colgate last Wednesday, to finish second in the Patriot League.
The fourth-ranked men’s team needed an 18-6 victory over visiting Loyola (Md.) on Friday evening to clinch first place in the Patriot League and earn the right to host the semifinal and final rounds of the tournament on Friday and Sunday at Michie Stadium. Senior Jackson Eicher scored six goals for Army, tying a West Point record set by Tommy Cafaro in 1971, with 51 goals during the season.
The women’s team will face a rematch with Navy, which the Black Knights beat 17-12 in mid-April, on Thursday in the semifinals of the Patriot League, starting at 7 p.m. Loyola, which finished first in regular-season league play, will face Holy Cross, starting at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The championship game will start at 2:30 on Saturday. All the remaining games will be played at Loyola.
As the top seed, the Army men’s team will face the lowest seed remaining from the quarterfinal games on Tuesday on Friday starting at 4:30 p.m. Lafayette, seeded third in the tournament will face sixth-seeded Navy, while fourth-seeded Colgate will meet fifth-seeded Lehigh. Boston University, the second seed and the only team to defeat Army this season when they knocked off the Black Knights 11-10 in overtime in early April, will face the higher seed immediately after the conclusion of the first semifinal game.
The championship game will be played at Michie Stadium on Sunday with the game starting at 11:30 a.m.
“Our guys’ reaction (to winning the league title) was very hum-drum about it,” said Army men’s coach Joe Alberici. “When you win a regular-season championship through eight games you have to be consistently good and they were that. We will take that, put it in the trunk and think about it in the summertime. Now we have some other things we are chasing and we are zero and zero right now.”