ALBANY — The University at Albany women’s lacrosse team tested itself this season with a rigorous nonconference schedule that included losses to Northwestern and Syracuse, the top two seeds in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
The Great Danes will find out if those regular-season tests will help them upset 12th-ranked Virginia at 8 p.m. Friday in a first-round match at the University of Denver.
“They (Virginia) play in the ACC,” UAlbany head coach Katie Thomson said. “They play a top schedule every weekend, but we’ve also faced a lot of really good opponents this year, so we’re feeling really good.”
America East champion UAlbany (12-6) played four ranked foes during the regular season. The Great Danes fell at Syracuse 22-5 on March 1 and 21-11 at home to Northwestern on April 8.
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Peter Barton Stadium, Denver
Livestream: ESPN+
The Great Danes also dropped their season opener at No. 20 Johns Hopkins 17-10 on Feb. 12 and came their closest to an upset with a 21-20 defeat at No. 18 Stanford on March 12.
“I think it helps a lot,” senior midfielder Sarah Falk said. “I think it builds our confidence. We were neck-and-neck with Northwestern for half the game and I think we played our hearts out and being able to play against opponents like that is just so special and makes us play better, I think, and lets us know we can compete with those top teams.”
UAlbany is facing Virginia (11-6) for the first time in program history. The Great Danes program has never played a game in Colorado. If UAlbany gets past Virginia, it will play either host Denver (19-0) or USC (16-3) in a second-round game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Thomson said the Great Danes didn’t know what to expect when they gathered for the NCAA selection show last Sunday, just hours after beating Binghamton 14-13 in the America East final.
“We were like, ‘That would be wild if we ended up going to Denver,’ ” Thomson said. “When it came up, we all went crazy because it’s such an exciting moment for our team and our program. It’s somewhere we haven’t been as a team and an opponent we haven’t faced, so it does make it very special and exciting and we’re just eager to spend this extra time together.”
UAlbany is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2017, when it received an at-large bid. The Great Danes are 1-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including a 2011 first-round victory at Dartmouth.
While this is a new experience for almost the entire Great Danes roster, UAlbany graduate attack Shonly Wallace has played at Denver before. She spent the past three seasons at Oregon and faced Denver at Peter Barton Stadium in 2020.
“Peter Barton’s a historic stadium,” Wallace said. “Definitely some great lacrosse history out there from their men’s team and women’s team. It’s super cool to have the opportunity to go there again. I’m super thankful to have played there and I’m really excited our team gets to experience that and just be somewhere different.”
Wallace said the high altitude of Denver shouldn’t be a big issue and pointed out Virginia has to deal with it, too. She said she’ll remind her teammates to drink plenty of water.
“The excitement of the game is going to get in the way,” she said. “I think we’ll be all right. I’m hydration police already as it is, so being on them again, but I think we’ll adjust fine.”
UAlbany junior midfielder Katie Pascale said the Great Danes will go into Friday with an underdog mentality.
“We haven’t been to an NCAA Tournament in a while, but I mean, we just played a great America East schedule and we had some competitive out-of-conference games,” she said. “We’ve seen the best and we can compete with any team really right now.”