The Northwestern lacrosse team learned Sunday it has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA championships. It will make an appearance for the first time in 16 years and for the first time since the program was reinstated three years ago.

The Wildcats (14-2) will face Notre Dame (12-4) at home at 3 p.m. on Thursday in a battle of Midwest lacrosse powers. They are the only two teams from the region in the tournament.

The 16-team, single-elimination tournament begins Thursday, and the Final Four will be held the following weekend in Princeton, N.J.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “It’s a great rivalry, and we know them really well, and they know us really well.”

The Cats were fairly confident as they watched the selection announcements in the basketball conference room at Welsh Ryan Arena.

They knew their 14-2 record and victories over three ranked teams probably would carry them into the tournament.

The Cats, many wearing their brand-new American League Conference Champion hats, didn’t seem nervous as they snacked on pizza and Gatorade.

Amonte Hiller said she was pretty sure her team would be playing Notre Dame on Thursday.

When the selection show’s commentator said the eight teams waiting for bids probably were nervous to watch the show, the team chuckled.

“We’re not sweating right now, right guys?” sophomore Jenny Bush asked.

But after the first 12 of 16 teams were announced, the room got a bit quieter, and players started to look worried.

Then the team learned it would play the Fighting Irish, and the Cats leapt up, screaming and clapping.

“As the brackets kept coming up and we weren’t there, my heart started to race,” Bush said. “I didn’t expect that at all. But it’s unbelievable, and really exciting for our program.”

Amonte Hiller, who will be coaching in the postseason for the first time in her career, said she was excited by her team’s selection. Notre Dame will be a good opponent, she said, but one her team can beat.

NU already beat the Fighting Irish 9-5 in a rainy, messy matchup at home April 20, the only meeting between the teams this season.

A home game will be a huge advantage, Amonte Hiller and her team said, because they won’t have to travel and will have fans at the game.

“The more support you have, the better you’re going to do,” Amonte Hiller said.

Amonte Hiller also was pleased with the other teams in the Cats’ bracket, which includes Mount St. Mary’s and No. 2 Virginia. She expected to be in the bracket with No. 1 Princeton, the two-time defending champion and favorite in this year’s tournament, and said she is relieved to be far-removed from the Tigers in the bracket.

If the Cats win Thursday, they probably will play Sunday at Virginia.

Many of the matchups were surprising, Amonte Hiller said. Although the nation’s top 10 teams all made the cut, unranked teams Dartmouth, Temple and Mount St. Mary’s beat out other nationally-ranked squads.

Johns Hopkins was another surprise. The tenth-ranked Blue Jays were the third ALC team to make the tournament, the first time the conference has sent more than two teams in its three-year history.

Johns Hopkins and co-league champions Vanderbilt and NU will represent the ALC this season.

After the selection, Amonte Hiller told her team to rest up and prepare for tough practices and an even tougher Notre Dame team. She told her team the Fighting Irish would come back with a vengeance.

“They think they’re still better than us,” Amonte Hiller said. “They think it was the rain that day. We have to show them it wasn’t the rain — it was us.”