The 1996 NCAA Division I lacrosse tournament was the 26th annual tournament hosted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the team champion of men's college lacrosse among its Division I programs, held at the end of the 1996 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse season.
| 1996 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 12 | ||||
| Finals site | Byrd Stadium College Park, Maryland | ||||
| Champions | Princeton (3rd title) | ||||
| Runner-up | Virginia (5th title game) | ||||
| Semifinalists | Johns Hopkins (20th Final Four) Syracuse (14th Final Four) | ||||
| Winning coach | Bill Tierney (3rd title) | ||||
| MOP | Michael Watson, Virginia | ||||
| Attendance[1] | 22,102 finals 68,978 total | ||||
| Top scorers | Rob Kavovit, Syracuse Doug Knight and Tim Whiteley, Virginia (16 goals) | ||||
| |||||
Princeton defeated Virginia in the final, 13–12 in overtime. Jesse Hubbard scored the game-winning goal for Princeton in overtime. This was Princeton's third national championship under Head Coach Bill Tierney.[1]
The championship game was played at Byrd Stadium at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, with 22,102 fans in attendance.[2]
Qualifying
Twelve NCAA Division I college men's lacrosse teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament. No teams made their debut appearance in the Division I lacrosse tournament in 1996.
Tournament bracket
| First Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Towson State | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| Loyola Maryland | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Princeton | 22 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Towson State | 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Princeton | 11 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Syracuse | 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | North Carolina | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Syracuse | 19 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Syracuse | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| Army | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Princeton | 13 * | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Virginia | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| Harvard | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Hofstra | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Virginia | 23 | |||||||||||||||||
| Harvard | 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Virginia | 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Johns Hopkins | 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Maryland | 7 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Johns Hopkins | 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Johns Hopkins | 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
- * = Overtime
All-Tournament Team
- Michael Watson, Virginia (Named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player)
- Jesse Hubbard, Princeton
- David Curry, Virginia
- Casey Powell, Syracuse
- Becket Wolf, Princeton
- Tim Whiteley, Virginia
- Don McDonough, Princeton
- Tommy Smith, Virginia
- Pancho Gutstein, Princeton
- Chris Massey, Princeton
See also
- 1996 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament
- 1996 NCAA Division II lacrosse tournament
- 1996 NCAA Division III men's lacrosse tournament