ESPN to Present Coverage of NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship

The field is set for the semifinals of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship Presented by Northwestern Mutual, which begins Saturday, May 28, at noon from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Unseeded North Carolina, who defeated two seeded teams to advance, will play No. 7 SEED Loyola (Md.). Maryland, the number one SEED in the championship, will face No. 5 SEED Brown at 2:30 p.m. The winners will play in the national title game on Monday, May 30, at 1 p.m. All three games will air on ESPN2.

ESPN covered over 100 men's and women's regular season games this season, and 2016 marks the 22nd consecutive year the network has televised championship weekend in its entirety.

Game Storylines

• Two teams hail from Maryland: top-seeded Maryland is looking to claim a third lacrosse national title in its third consecutive appearance
• Loyola (Md.), in its fourth trip to championship weekend, won its only title in 2012
• North Carolina is making its first appearance in over 20 years and is the only unseeded team among the final four teams; UNC went 16-0 with a national title in 1991
• Brown, in search of the program's first lacrosse national title, could potentially play without Tewaaraton Award finalist Dylan Molloy due to a foot injury
• Maryland and North Carolina boast both its men's and women's lacrosse programs in the 2016 NCAA championships
• Joe Breschi, head coach of the Tar Heels, grabbed the attention of many during his emotional postgame interview with Paul Carcaterra after their quarterfinal win, stating that senior captain Patrick Kelly dedicated the game to Breschi's 3-year-old son who passed away in 2004

Features

• Game action will also be captured through a wireless goal camera for an alternate view
• All three game officials will wear microphones during the semifinals and championship, providing on-field dialogue throughout the telecast
• A Sport Science feature examines the reaction time needed for a goalie to stop a high-speed lacrosse shot with Penn State alum and Major League Lacrosse Goalie of the Year Drew Adams

Commentators

ESPN's top lacrosse commentating team will once again call all the action live from Philadelphia.

• The trio of Eamon McAnaney (play-by-play), Quint Kessenich (analyst) and Paul Carcaterra (sideline reporter/analyst) will be on the call for championship weekend. As former college lacrosse standouts, Kessenich (Johns Hopkins) and Carcaterra (Syracuse) both led their teams to national titles in 1991 and 1995 respectively. McAnaney, a former Notre Dame defenseman, is in his 10th lacrosse season as a play-by-play announcer for ESPN.
• Host Anish Shroff and analyst Ryan Flanagan, a former defenseman who played under Joe Breschi at North Carolina, will provide in-studio coverage of the semifinals

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