Apr. 21st, 2002 - 2002 SELC Tournament Seeds are announced!
The SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC) has announced the 6 seeds for the 2002 SELC Championship Tournament. The SELC Tournament returns to Chattanooga's Finley Stadium next weekend (Friday, April 26 – Sunday, April 29). Live, goal by goal coverage from Chattanooga will be available all weekend on SELC.org and USLIA.com!
Click here for tournament information including directions to Finley Stadium and a complete schedule of events.Undefeated Auburn and Virginia Tech have earned the top two seeds for the tournament and both programs will receive a bye into Saturday's semifinal round. The Auburn Tigers (13 – 0) are the defending SELC Champion and hope to join Tennessee as the only SELC program to successfully repeat as league champion next weekend at Finley Stadium. Virginia Tech, a member of the SELC for the past 3 seasons, has lost in the last two SELC Championship games. The Hokies, looking for their first ever league championships, finished the season with a 10 – 5 mark.
Florida, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Tennessee all earned the 3 through 6 slots respectively. In quarterfinal play, the Vanderbilt Commodores (# 4 seed) will take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (# 5 seed) on Friday afternoon at 4:00pm to start the tournament. Vanderbilt is appearing in the SELC playoffs for the third straight year. The Commodores hope to earn a rematch against Auburn in the SELC semifinals. Vandy lost at Auburn 14 – 7 last Friday night. Fresh from an impressive 15 – 0 shut of archrival Georgia on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia Tech is making their first appearance in the SELC playoffs in four years.
The Florida Gators (# 3 seed) will take on the Tennessee Vols (# 6 seed) in the evening night to finish the quarterfinal round at 8:00pm. This game is a rematch of a classic February contest in Knoxville where Florida upset Tennessee in a SELC record 4 overtimes.
Because there was a 4 way tie for the last two playoff spots, a special committee consisting of SELC President Doug Horn, Tournament Director Tom Lewis, and Assistant Secretary Eric Rudolph conferred on how to decide which teams would get the final two spots in the tournament. Using the existing tiebreaker rules (established in 1999), the first tiebreaker of head to head competition was ruled out because not all of the teams had head to head competition. The next tiebreaker rule, goals allowed in the mandatory eight game schedule, was implemented. Based on that tiebreaker, the results were as follows:
1. Georgia Tech- 64 goals allowed
2. Tennessee - 72 goals allowed
3. Emory- 90 goals allowed
4. Florida State - 95 goals allowed
Therefore Georgia Tech was seeded 5th and Tennessee was seeded 6th for the 2002 SELC Tournament.
Final 2002 SELC Tournament Seedings:
1. Auburn
2. Virginia Tech
3. Florida
4. Vanderbilt
5. Georgia Tech
6. Tennessee
2002 SELC Tournament Schedule
Friday, April 26
Quarter-final Round
4:00pm: #4 Vanderbilt vs #5 Georgia Tech
8:00pm: #3 Florida vs #6 Tennessee
Saturday, April 27
Semi Finals
3:15pm: #1 Auburn vs Vanderbilt/Georgia Tech winner
8:00pm: #2 Virginia Tech vs Florida/Tennessee winner
Sunday, April 28th
10:00am: Consolation Final (Losers of Semi Final games)
2:45pm: 2002 SELC Championship Game (Winners of Semi Final games)