In the first round of the Women's NCAA Division 1 Lacrosse Championship Tournament, the fourth seeded and fourth ranked Syracuse University Orange women's lacrosse team welcomes the unseeded and ninth ranked Dartmouth Big Green women's lacrosse team to the Carrier Dome for a Mother's Day tilt on Sunday May 13th at 4pm. The Orange women look to bounce back after having their 15 game winning streak broken last week by the Loyola Greyhounds in a 13-7 loss in the Big East Tournament final.

This Sunday's game will be the second meeting this season between the two teams as the Orange women defeated the Big Green 22-4 on April 9th in Syracuse the first time around. In that game, Michelle Tumulo paced the Orange with 8 points on 3 goals and 5 assists. Alyssa Murray had 4 goals and 2 assists for 6 points and Katie Webster was third in points with 4 points on 3 goals and a helper. Alyssa Constantino (3 goals allowed, 7 saves) picked up the win while splitting time in goal with Kelsey Richardson (1 goal allowed, 4 saves).

Dartmouth enters the game riding a 6 game winning streak including last week's victory in the final game of the Ivy League tournament. The Big Green upset the number 1 seeded Penn Quakers 6-4 to win their first Ivy League Tournament title, avenging a 9-8 loss to Penn in the inaugural 2010 Women's Lacrosse Ivy League Tournament. Sunday's game will be 15th meeting all time between the two teams, with Dartmouth holding an 8-6 series lead, but Syracuse has won 5 of the last 7. The Tale of the Tape after the jump.

The Particulars
16-3, 8-0 Big East, At Large		12-4, 5-2 Ivy League, Ivy League Champ
Head Coach: Gary Gait (5th year, 57-23)		Head Coach: Amy Patton (20th year, 209-98)
10th NCAA tournament appearance		13th NCAA tournament appearance, 1 title
Vital Statistics
Goals per Game: 14.89 (7)		Goals Per Game: 10.31 (62)
Goals Against Avg: 8.53 (9)		Goals Against Avg: 9.00 (13)
Scoring Margin: 6.21 (7)		Scoring Margin: 1.39 (32)
Ground Balls Per Game: 13.47 (82)		Ground Balls Per Game: 14.50 (64)
Caused TO per Game: 5.21 (85)		Caused TO per Game: 6.25 (74)
Draw Controls Per Game: 15.00 (7)		Draw Controls Per Game: 11.94 (57)
Scoring Leaders
Alyssa Murray (63g, 29a, 92p)		Sarah Plumb (36g, 12a, 48p)
Michelle Tumulo (43g, 40a, 83p)		Kristen Goldberg (37g, 10a, 47p)
Goal Keepers
Alyssa Constantino (.526 SP, 14-2)		Kristen Giovanniello (.476 SP, 12-4)
Kelsey Richardson (.508 SP, 2-1)
Common Opponents
Defeated Harvard 10-6		Lost to Harvard 7-5
Defeated Florida 12-11, 2OT		Lost to Florida 20-4
Defeated Cornell 16-9		Defeated Cornell 12-10
		Defeated Cornell 9-8 Ivy League Tournament

Given the previous result, it is tempting to expect the Orange women to win the rematch with Dartmouth in a walk over. However, the Orange defeated the Georgetown Hoyas (9:38pm on Saturday as I type this, and yes, they still suck) 22-11 in the regular season and squeaked out a 7-6 win in the Big East Conference Tournament semifinals. As the popular disclaimer goes, past performance does not guarantee future results.

Still, I don't expect Dartmouth to have much of a chance to pull off the upset and make it to the second round instead of the Orange. Look for a tighter game this time around with ‘Cuse winning 13-8 and Alyssa Murray and Michelle Tumulo pacing the Orange in scoring as usual as Syracuse advances to a second round date with the North Carolina Tarheels women's lacrosse team. North Carolina advanced to the second round by beating Navy 14-7 earlier today.

WJPZ 89.1 FM will have radio coverage and Orange All-Access will have audio only. No television coverage as far as I can tell. I'll be tweeting the game live (hopefully - my mother may have other ideas...) from the Dome at @mrbankies #SUWLaxNCAA