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Up until a few years ago, I feel like we never played the Duke Blue Devils in lacrosse. Then we whipped them in the 2009 Final Four. Then they popped up on our schedule in 2011 in the Big City Classic (W 13-11). This season they finally got the better of us in the return BCC match (L 10-12).
Now, NCAA Lacrosse's nouveau riche, the Duke Blue Devils, will host the Syracuse Orange in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament as the rivalry continues to build before we become conference-mates.
College Crosse has your full bracket breakdown, which includes Duke - Syracuse in the 3-seed match-up. If the Orange are able to win their game in Durham, no small task, they'd find the winner of UMass - Colgate waiting for them in Philadelphia.
Fellow Big East school Notre Dame qualified as a No. 4 seed while Villanova was effectively eliminated by us in the Big East Tournament.
Not that it matters but Syracuse finishes the regular season No. 14 in the Media Poll and No. 16 in the Coaches Poll. Here's one big massive polls and ranking breakdown as well.
Syracuse vs. Duke will take place Saturday, May 12 at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C. Faceoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. on ESPN. As for which Syracuse team will show up, the juggernaut from the Big East Tournament or the mediocre one from the regular season, we'll just have to wait and see...