Seven Stories and One Set of Beats: May 9, 2012

This is obviously your favorite site, but other people actually write important stuff sometimes. Now is that sometimes.

UMass 2 of a kind
The men’s and the women’s lacrosse teams from UMass both will compete in the NCAA tournament this spring for just the second time in school history. The first time it happened was 2009.

NCAA lacrosse favorite is anyone's guess
Loyola is the No. 1 seed. Massachusetts is unbeaten. Virginia is the defending champion. Duke, Johns Hopkins and Notre Dame enjoyed strong stretches this season. There are plenty of contenders in the NCAA lacrosse tournament. But is there a true favorite?

2012 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Bracket Has Me Crying
Boston College shares a lot of commonalities with the programs that made this year's 2012 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship field. So why isn't the school fielding varsity men's lax again?

Men's lacrosse tournament preview
Evan Washburn takes you through all eight first-round games, with analysis and predictions.

Dixon's Takeaways: Who Will be the First-Round Difference-Makers?
With the NCAA Tournament upon us I have decided to tweak Tuesday Takeaways. This week the Takeaways space will focus on players looking to make a difference in this weekend's first-round action.

Men's Lacrosse: Despite loss to Yale, Tigers make NCAA Tournament
Everything was falling the men’s lacrosse team’s way. The 10th ranked Tigers took down Cornell last Saturday for their first outright and undefeated Ivy League title since 2001, earning the rights to host the league championship tournament in the process. Princeton, the No. 1 seed, took down Brown 9-6 Friday night in the semifinal, while Yale upset Cornell in the other semifinal.

2012 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament: Instant Reaction From Coaches; Podcast
Inside Lacrosse's Terry Foy talks to NCAA selection committee chair Tony Seaman, UMass coach Greg Cannella on how his team took the news that they'd be the sixth seed, Penn State's Jeff Tambroni on the emotions in his locker room after the Nittany Lions were surprisingly left out of the tournament field, Carolina's Joe Breschi on the excitement to be host Denver this week and ESPNU's Quint Kessenich, fresh off the selection show, to wrap it all up.

Today's beats: Wilco. That is all.