BALTIMORE – UC Santa Barbara has earned the top seed for the 2008 US Lacrosse Women’s Division Intercollegiate Associates (WDIA) National Championship Tournament, presented by Brine. The 16-team tournament will be held from May 7-10 in Denver with preliminary round games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and the championship set for May 10 at Invesco Field at Mile High.

UCSB completed a perfect 16-0 regular season with a 12-11 overtime victory over seven-time defending WDIA national champion Cal Poly in the Western Women’s Lacrosse League championship game, earning the league’s automatic bid to the tournament.

Seven other teams earned automatic qualifiers to the tournament field by virtue of winning conference championships: No. 4 seed Michigan (Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse League), No. 8 seed Lindenwood (Central Plains Women’s Lacrosse League), No. 11 seed Texas A&M (Texas Women’s Lacrosse League), No. 13 seed Georgia (Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League), No. 14 seed Army (East Coast Women’s Lacrosse Association), No. 15 seed Minnesota (North Central Women’s Lacrosse League) and No. 16 seed Boston College Club (New England Women’s Lacrosse League).

Eight at-large invitations were also awarded: No. 2 seed Colorado State, No. 3 seed Colorado, No. 5 seed Cal Poly, No. 6 seed Santa Clara, No. 7 seed Pittsburgh, No. 9 seed UCLA, No. 10 seed Virginia Tech Club and No. 12 seed Michigan State.

The championship game will be televised nationally on a tape-delayed basis by CBS College Sports. The first airing will be shown on Monday, May 12 at 8 p.m. (Eastern).

Cal Poly defeated Navy 16-9 to win its seventh consecutive WDIA last spring. The Mustangs are the only team to have qualified for all eight WDIA tournament fields since the event was first held in 2001. Boston College Club is the only team in this year’s field that has never appeared in the tournament.

The US Lacrosse WDIA structure consists of more than 165 college club teams from around the country. Further information about the WDIA is available online at www.uslacrosse.org/wdia.

Together with Colorado Rising Stars Lacrosse, LLC, US Lacrosse will host the first WDIA Youth Clinic this May in Denver, CO in conjunction with the WDIA National Championship Game. The event will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2008, just before the WDIA National Championship game. The two-hour clinic will start at 9:30 a.m.

The event is open to youth lacrosse players ages 5 to 14, and provides an excellent opportunity for youth boys and girls to learn from the best collegiate club players in the United States as well as the top coaches in the Denver area. Clinicians will work with youth members of all levels, enabling them to share their lacrosse skills and promote the game among all ages and levels of play. For more information and to register, please visit www.uslacrosse.org/events/ia/clinic08.phtml.

First Round Games
No. 1 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 16 Boston College Club
No. 2 Colorado State vs. No. 15 Minnesota
No. 3 Colorado vs. No. 14 Army
No. 4 Michigan vs. No. 13 Georgia
No. 5 Cal Poly vs. No. 12 Michigan State
No. 6 Santa Clara vs. No. 11 Texas A&M
No. 7 Pittsburgh vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech Club
No. 8 Lindenwood vs. No. 9 UCLA

Brine is the official presenting sponsor for the 2008 US Lacrosse Women’s Division Intercollegiate Associates National Championship. Sports Her Way is the official retailer for the event.

US Lacrosse, a 501(c)(3) corporation, is the national governing body for men’s and women’s lacrosse and includes more than 250,000 active members. For more information about the organization, please visit its Web site at www.uslacrosse.org.