SU Hosts Bryant in NCAA First Round

2013 NCAA First Round - #2 Syracuse (13-3) vs. Bryant (8-10)
Details	Sunday, May 12 \| Syracuse, N.Y. \| 7:30 p.m. Tournament Bracket \| Carrier Dome \| Tickets \| Weather
Game Coverage	TV: ESPNU \| Radio: ESPN Radio 97.7 (Syracuse) WatchESPN.com: Watch Orange All Access: Listen \| Live Stats Twitter: @Cuse, @sumenslax
Syracuse Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Notes \| Guide
Bryant Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Records

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse received the No. 1 seed in the 2013 NCAA Championship and begins postseason play against Northeast champion Bryant on Sunday, May 12 in the tournament's opening round. Syracuse is the BIG EAST champion and earned the tournament's top seed on the strength of a 13-3 record. Bryant is making its first NCAA appearance since becoming a Division I program in 2009. The Bulldogs are 8-10.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 12 and under and available online and at the Carrier Dome Box Office. Parking is $10 in the surface lots surrounding the Dome.

The game will be televised live nationally on ESPU with Mark Dixon and Ryan Boyle on the call. Fans can also hear the action live on the radio home of the Orange - ESPN Radio 97.7 FM in Syracuse. Live streaming audio is available on SUathletics.com as part of Orange All-Access.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY
The NCAA Tournament is familiar territory for the Orange. This is SU'S 33rd trip to the postseason, the fourth-most NCAA appearances by any Division I program, and it enters the 2013 tournament with a 62-21 postseason record. Its 62 tournament victories are the second-most behind Johns Hopkins (67), and SU owns the all-time best postseason winning percentage at .747. The Orange has the most NCAA titles (11) of any Division I program and has reached the NCAA championship game 16 times.

NO. 1 SEED SUITS ORANGE WELL
This is the ninth time overall, and the second time in three seasons, Syracuse has been seeded first in the NCAA Tournament. The Orange owns a 18-4 all-time record when serving as the No. 1 seed, including winning the 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2000 national championships.

DESKO OWNS HIGHEST NCAA TOURNAMENT WINNING PERCENTAGE
Head coach John Desko took over the program in 1999 and has guided the Orange to 14 NCAA Tournaments in 15 seasons and five NCAA titles (2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009). Desko's clubs are 28-8 in the NCAA playoffs, good for a .778 winning percentage. That mark is the best among all head coaches that have coached at least 10 postseason games. Legendary Johns Hopkins mentor Henry Ciccarone is second with a .750 (18-6) winning percentage.

ORANGE REPEATS AS BIG EAST CHAMPS
Syracuse won its second straight BIG EAST Championship tournament with a convincing 13-9 victory over Villanova in the the league championship game on May 4 at Villanova Stadium. Overall, the Orange dispatched Notre Dame in the semifinals and the Wildcats in the final by a cumulative score of 22-12 to earn the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

Sophomore Kevin Rice was named the championship's most outstanding player. Rice recorded seven points (four goals, three assists) in the two games, including two goals and three assists against Villanova in the final. David Hamlin, JoJo Marasco, Derek Maltz and Dominic Lamolinara joined him on the all-tournament team.

MARASCO PICKED AS A TEWAARATON FINALIST
Senior midfielder JoJo Marasco is one of the five finalists for the 2013 Tewaaraton Award, which will be presented to the nation's top lacrosse player. Marasco joins Rob Pannell (Cornell), Marcus Holman (North Carolina) and Tom Schreiber (Princeton) as finalists for college lacrosse's most prestigious award. This is the fifth time in the last six years the Orange has had a finalist.

The Tewaaraton Award has been presented to the national player of the year each season since 2001 and will be handed out on May 30 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

HAMLIN: STEADY AND RELIABLE
Redshirt senior defenseman David Hamlin has started 33 straight games. He has 24 ground balls and he leads the team with 22 caused turnovers. Hamlin was named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team after shutting out Notre Dame star attackman Matt Kavanagh for just the second time all year.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Bryant started the year 0-7 before rebounding to win eight of its last 11 games. The Bulldogs beat Sacred Heart and Robert Morris last weekend to capture their second straight Northeast Conference Tournament title.

Midfielder Colin Dunster leads the Bulldogs with 31 goals and he is tied for the team lead in points (45). Senior attackman Peter McMahon recorded 10 points, including six goals, versus Sacred Heart and Robert Morris to earn NEC Tournament MVP honors. Bryant also boasts the league player of the year in faceoff man Kevin Massa. Massa leads the nation in faceoff winning percentage (.713, 293-411) and set an NCAA single-season record with 223 ground balls in 2013.

The Bryant defense features one of the most dynamic long poles in the country in Mason Poli, who has 14 goals and eight assists in addition to 33 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers. For his career, Poli leads all active defenders with 61 points (44 goals, 17 assists). Gunnar Waldt and Tom Carey have split time in the cage. Both have started seven games with Waldt playing exclusively in the last three. Waldt's numbers are slighty better. He has a 9.0 goals-against average and a .570 save percentage to Carey's 9.10 GAA and .545 save percentage.

The Bulldogs are coached by Mike Pressler who is in his seventh year at the helm. He is 77-41 with the Bulldogs after spending 16 seasons as the head coach Duke. Pressler is one of five active Division I coaches with at least 300 wins. In addition, he is sixth among active Division I coaches in winning percentage (.682, 306-143). Pressler guided Duke to the NCAA Tournament 10 times, including an appearance in the 2005 national championship game. His other previous head coaching stops include Ohio Wesleyan and VMI.

UP NEXT
The winner of the Syracuse-Bryant matchup will face the winner of Yale-Penn State on Saturday, May 18 in the NCAA quarterfinals at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md.

Syracuse University Athletics

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