MILTON, Mass. -  Western New England has earned the top seed for The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) women’s lacrosse championship, which begins with quarterfinal round games on Saturday, April 30.
      
The Golden Bears (13-4 overall) claimed the top seed in the conference tournament after posting a 10-1 record in TCCC play.  Western New England and second-seeded Endicott finished with identical 10-1 conference records, but the Golden Bears earned the top seed by virtue of a 15-12 victory in the teams’ lone matchup this season.  The top-seeded Golden Bears will open the tournament with a quarterfinal matchup against #8 seed Nichols College (4-11 overall, 3-8 TCCC) in Springfield, Mass.
      
Three other quarterfinal games are also slated for Saturday, April 30, including #2 seed Endicott College (11-5, 10-1) hosting #7 seed Salve Regina University (7-9, 5-6) in Beverly, Mass., #3 seed Curry College (14-3, 9-2) hosting #6 seed Colby-Sawyer College (8-9, 6-5) in Milton, Mass., and #4 seed Roger Williams University (11-6, 8-3) hosting #5 seed Gordon College (10-6, 8-3) in Bristol, R.I.
      
In addition to settling the deadlock atop the conference standings, TCCC tiebreaking procedures were also used to determine the #8 seed.   Nichols, New England College and the University of New England each finished with identical 3-8 conference records.  All three teams posted 1-1 records in conference games played among the three schools (step one) and also had identical records against every other team in the league (step two).  There were no common opponents among the three teams (step three) and each team had identical records against opponents with a .500 winning percentage or higher (step four).  As a result, a three-way coin toss was employed with Nichols emerging as the winner.
      
Quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinal round on Wednesday, May 4.

Tournament action culminates with the championship game on Saturday, May 7. The TCCC tournament champion will earn an automatic berth in the upcoming 2011 NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship.
      
The complete tournament schedule appears below.  All times are tentative and subject to change.

View the Tournament Pairings here

View the Tournament Bracket here