by Fitzgerald Cecilio

Philadelphia, PA

Despite being ranked No. 1 in the poll with a 12-3 mark, the selection committee has designated North Carolina as fifth seed in this year's NCAA men's lacrosse tournament.

"When you look at a Carolina, their body of work is outstanding, as is the other four in the top five, but when you start to get down to it, there were a couple of things relative to say, significant wins, which really weren't bearing out," NCAA lacrosse committee chairman Jim Siedliski explained.

"As far as their common opponents they had with Ohio State was pretty much a push. They did have a significant loss in UMass at No. 22 where Ohio State's lowest loss was No. 10 at Loyola Maryland," he added.

Despite criticisms, Siedliski said the committee is "pretty good about remaining consistent to the NCAA selection criteria".

The selection committee handed the No. 1 overall seed to Syracuse, which will host the Bryant when the tournament kicks off next weekend. The Orange lost their season opener to Albany but still grabbed the long-awaited top seeding.

"It's come a long ways," Syracuse coach John Desko told ESPN. "The guys have gotten better every week and I think we learned a lot from that loss to Albany. ... I think we grew from that."

Notre Dame, which lost twice to Syracuse this year, earned the second seed, the Buckeyes were seeded third and Denver earned the No. 4 spot.

At No. 5, the Tar Heels earned the highest seed for any of the ACC schools in the field, last year's national title runner-up Maryland was seeded sixth while Duke garnered a 7-seed. Penn State rounded out the seeded teams with the No. 8 slot.

Defending champion Loyola will open its title defense against the Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins failed to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 42 years.

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No. 1 North Carolina Just Fifth Seed in NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament