The East Coast bias is alive and well in the world of women’s lacrosse today.
Before No. 1-ranked Northwestern was wrongfully denied its due No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, the Eastern programs had appeared to have softened their disdain on lacrosse played in the Midwest and West.
But any unifying progress was erased when another travesty occurred Monday – the biggest one yet – based only on ignorant, self-serving ideas that East Coast programs are somehow inherently better and entitled to more accolades than other schools.
The gutless followers on the selection committee that gave the Wildcats a No. 4 seed should be ashamed of themselves. One can argue that perennial powerhouse Duke earned the No. 1 seed, but giving Virginia and Georgetown the second and third seeds is a joke.
Now, NU is set up for an unnecessarily difficult home matchup with North Carolina or Maryland in the second round, provided they dispatch Stanford at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Thomas Athletic Complex.
The Cats have lost one game in two years. They have the best player and best coach in the nation. They lead the nation in scoring, scoring margin, draw controls and win percentage.
To cover this up with a strength-of-schedule argument is comical. Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller didn’t schedule to play a pair of top-10 teams in one weekend for kicks three weeks ago.
And it’s not like Amonte Hiller hasn’t tried to schedule every other top-25 program. If she had it her way, she would only play ranked teams because of her competitive fire and faith in her players.
The worst part, though, is this mockery stemming the East Coast bias isn’t the first. In fact, it is just another in a long series of shams from the “powers that be” on the East Coast exerting their influence.
Also high on the depth chart of deplorable excesses of power would be the highway robbery of the Tewaaraton Trophy from junior Kristen Kjellman last year. Not only did the midfielder lead NU to its first national championship since 1941, but she was also named the NCAA Championship MVP and IWLCA and Inside Lacrosse Midfielder of the Year.
Still, the shocking events from Monday night take the cake, but they will only serve to motivate the Cats in defense of their NCAA title. Amonte Hiller could not have asked for a better fuel to rile up her players before this weekend.
It’s not like the competition needed to dig itself a deeper deficit, but it has just done so.
And while you can’t count on an NCAA selection committee to judge teams fairly, you can now count on NU picking up another national championship over Memorial Day weekend.
As if they clearly weren’t the best team in the nation already.
Sports editor Zach Silka is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected].
