The NCAA Lacrosse Tournament: A Series Of Rematches

Such is the state of college lacrosse that there's a very strong possibility Syracuse could play four games against four teams they've seen before (Full bracket here).

The Orange open the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, hosting Army.  SU defeated the Cadets 12-7 back on March 1st. 

Win that game and they are most likely looking at a re-match with Cornell, who might be just slightly tired of seeing us after we beat them in the last second in April.  Oh and then there's the whole "beating them in overtime of the national title game" thing.

Win there and it's on to the Final Four.  The most likely opponent is one the Orange actually haven't seen this year...No. 3 Maryland (though we did scrimmage them and win 10-7).  Of course, there's also the chance they could see #6 Princeton (W 13-4) or Notre Dame (W 12-6).

Win there and then the Orange are in the National Title game.  The odds are strongly on No. 1 Virginia being there, giving SU a chance to avenge their only loss of the season (11-10).  Of course if an upset does occur and things break extremely right (or wrong) for a few teams, there's also Denver and Johns Hopkins (ugh).

Of course SU can't look past Army despite their win over them earlier this season.  Army went on a tear to end the season and will not be intimidated by the Dome or the mighty Orange.

Army has won eight consecutive games since an 8-7 overtime loss on March 13 at Air Force dropped it to 2-5 on the season. It is led on offense by junior attackman Jeremy Boltus (C.W. Baker; 26 goals, 37 assists for 63 points) and on defense by brothers Bill and Tim Henderson (Tully). Bill Henderson is the Patriot League’s defensive player of the year.

"It’s not exactly foreign to them," Desko said. "Here we are the No. 2 seed and looking at a team like Army. Nothing’s easy. In the old days you might get an easy one in the first round. Not anymore."