Albany Lacrosse Clinches NCAA Tournament Invitation

Albany and UMBC played a tight first quarter, but the Great Danes pulled away over the final three periods in a 19-10 victory over the Retrievers in the America East Tournament championship. With the win, Albany assures itself of a position in the NCAA Tournament via the league's automatic invitation to The Big Barbecue and eliminates any concerns that the Great Danes had at the start of the day relative to its potential at-large profile.

The Thompson Trio, once again, was fabulous on the day, combining for 19 points and doing it the way they do it best -- with a thousand points of fight. Lyle Thompson had nine points on three goals and six assists, Miles Thompson had seven points on five goals and two assists, and Miles Thompson had three goals. (Interestingly, there were only four Thompson-Thompson scoring relationships in the game.) Here's a truncated tempo-free box score:

Albany positions itself as the opponent that no team in the NCAA Tournament wants to face in the first round (or any round for that matter). The Wheel of Albany needs to stop somewhere, though, and there are going to be a number of teams that repeat this refrain until they're hoarse: