Men’s Lacrosse to Host Aurora in NCAA Tournament Wednesday at Tucci
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A day removed from winning the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Tournament and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Illinois Wesleyan University men’s lacrosse team learned its postseason path Sunday night, May 7. The Titans will host Aurora University in a first round game Wednesday, May 10, in a 3 p.m. start inside Tucci Stadium. A full interactive bracket can be found here.
Illinois Wesleyan is in the 38-team field as one of 28 automatic qualifiers. The Green and White sits at 14-3 on the season and has won 11 in-a-row. The Titans earned the CCIW Tournament title with a 14-11 win over third-seeded Transylvania University yesterday, May 6.
The Titans are no strangers to the postseason, having qualified for the national tournament in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and this season. IWU, which hosted Rhodes in the first round in 2019, holds a 3-4 record in the tournament.
Aurora, which made the tournament via the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference’s automatic bid, rolled to a conference tournament title. The Spartans clobbered Benedictine, 20-4, in the semis before defeating Illinois Tech, 22-4, in the title game.
Wednesday’s NCAA Tournament opening round game will mark the rematch of a regular season bout between the Titans and Spartans. IWU took down AU, 16-7, in Aurora March 29, 2023.
The winner of Wednesday evening’s contest will advance to the weekend regional hosted by Denison. There, the winner of the IWU-AU clash will meet host DU at 11 a.m. CT Saturday, May 13, while Lynchburg and St. John Fisher round out the weekend pod.
The DI, DII and DIII men’s championship finals will all be at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Penn. The DIII and DII championship games are slated for Sunday, May 28. The DI semifinals are Saturday, May 27, and the title game is Monday, May 29.
A full bracket for the 38-team tournament can be found here.