Old Tradition vs. New Tradition as Maryland faces Northwestern for NCAA D-1 Women's Lacrosse Championship in Towson

NCAA D-1 Women's Lacrosse Championship, 5:30 p.m. on CBS College Sports, DirecTV 613 Replay is tonight at 9 pm, on Monday at 6:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Well, despite my hopes that #3 North Carolina might knock-off #2 Northwestern on Friday night so that they would have a chance at possibly winning their third NCAA title this year in a Women's sport that I follow -having previously won the Field Hockey and Soccer titles- the Wildcats, and in particular, their plucky and ridiculously-talented Senior play-maker Katrina Dowd, last year's tourney MVP, would hear none of that, as Northwestern won going-away 15-10 against the talented Tar Heels, who'd given the Wildcats AND Maryland their only losses of the season, after scoring four straight goals.
http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/mtt/dowd_katrina00.html

So now, Dowd and her Wildcats find the only thing standing in their way of winning their 6th straight NCAA title are the #1 Maryland Terrapins, the very school that dominated the sport for most of the past 20 years, with 9 titles of their own, including seven straight from 1995-2001 under former head coach Cindy Timchal.

The Terps dispatched a valiant un-ranked Syracuse squad that could never get any offensive momentum going against the stifling Terp defense, winning 14-5, with a late goal by former Glenelg Gladiator Kristy Black, who was a field hockey teammate of my oldest niece.
http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-lacros/mtt/black_kristy00.html

Friday's attendance of 8,762 fans at Johnny Unitas Stadium at Towson University for the two national Semifinals set a record for the largest United States women's lacrosse crowd.

Photo galleries of Friday night's UNC-Northwestern match:
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/view.gal?id=70134 http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/view.gal?id=70143

UNC Women's Lacrosse homepage:
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/unc-w-lacros-body.html

Northwestern Women's Lacrosse homepage:
http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/nw-w-lacros-body.html

Northwestern tourney stats:
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/w_lacrosse_champs_records/2010/D1/html/nu.htm

Photo gallery of Friday night's Maryland-Syracuse match: http://www.umterps.com/view.gal?id=70111
http://www.umterps.com/view.gal?id=70166

Maryland Women's Lacrosse homepage:
http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-lacros/md-w-lacros-body.html

Maryland tourney stats:
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/w_lacrosse_champs_records/2010/D1/html/md.htm

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Worth reading: Baltimore Sun's Lacrosse homepage, the best in the country:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/

Northwestern Women's Lacrosse: Inside An Unlikely Dynasty
by Hilary Lee
May 30, 2010 12:15 PM CDT http://www.rivalryesq.com/2010/5/30/1493884/northwestern-womens-lacrosse

Maryland-Northwestern Championship Game One Year In The Making
Sunday's title game between the Terps and Wildcats is a long time coming
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/052910aaa.html

Women's Lacrosse blog by Amy Farnum:
http://www.ncaa.com/blog/2010d1womenslacrosse/

Reminder: Tomorrow is the deadline for applying for 2011 NCAA Final Four basketball tickets for the games on April 2 and 4 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, hosted by the University of Houston and Rice University.
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/media+and+events/press+room/news+release+archive/2010/championships/20100520+ff+tix+rls