NCAA Second Round Sunday: Maryland and Harvard Know Their Slots, Two Pods Still to Be Decided
Sunday is when this tournament gets serious. Four second-round ties, four campus sites, four places in Louisville on the line. Two of the ties are already set. The other two depend on Friday night’s late games, which were still being played when this piece was filed.
Here’s the card as it stands.
College Park, 1pm ET (11pm PKT): Maryland wait on Iowa or Duke
Maryland did their part in style, hammering Wagner 8-1 on Friday with six goals in the first half. The No. 2 seeds now host the winner of Friday’s late tie between No. 7 Iowa and Duke. Iowa would mean a Big Ten semi-final rematch, Maryland won that one 4-1 in Columbus. Duke would be a new problem entirely, an ACC side that has already beaten plenty of good teams this season and has nothing to lose. Either way, the Terps will be favourites at home. They’ve been waiting a long time for a deep NCAA run, and Friday suggested they’re in the mood to make one.
Cambridge, 1pm ET (11pm PKT): Harvard wait on Yale or UMass
Harvard’s 4-0 win over Old Dominion was less comfortable than the scoreline suggests for the best part of an hour, but the Crimson got there in the end. Now they host the winner of Yale against UMass, and there’s no easy draw here. Yale are the Ivy Tournament champions who beat Harvard 2-1 in last week’s Ivy semi-final, avenging Harvard’s overtime win over them in the regular-season finale. UMass are 18-2 and beat Harvard 3-1 earlier in the campaign. Whichever side comes through, Harvard will be playing a team that knows exactly how to beat them. That’s what makes this the tie of the round for our money.
Storrs, 1pm ET (11pm PKT): Princeton or Syracuse meet UConn or Lafayette
The Storrs pod is the one with the most moving parts. No. 5 Princeton, last year’s runners-up, face Syracuse, the brand-new ACC champions, in Friday’s late game. The winners meet whoever comes out of the UConn-Lafayette tie, which was locked at 1-1 late in the third quarter on Friday afternoon. UConn are the hosts and the No. 4 seeds, but Lafayette arrived on an eight-game winning streak with a programme-best 17-2 record. Nobody in this pod is here by accident.
Evanston, 2pm ET (midnight PKT): Northwestern or Saint Joseph’s meet UNC or Miami
The late game on Sunday belongs to the top seeds. Defending champions Northwestern, who beat Princeton 2-1 in last year’s final and Saint Joseph’s 5-0 the year before, host the winner of their own first-round tie against Saint Joseph’s. Waiting for them are the winners of No. 8 North Carolina against Miami (Ohio). UNC won the whole thing in 2023 and are never to be written off in November. Miami are the MAC champions at 15-4. If Northwestern get through, that Evanston tie is a heavyweight fight.
And then Louisville
The four winners go to Trager Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky, for the semifinals on Friday 20 November and the championship game on Sunday 22 November. That’s the prize. But first, Sunday. Four games, four winners, four losers going home. After Friday’s opening salvo, don’t assume you know which four.
Sunday is stacked across the divisions too. The Division III regional finals are played on Sunday afternoon, and the Division II conference finals are decided the same day, with the Division II selection show following at 8pm ET on NCAA.com.
