2016 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament

The 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship was the 35th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of Division I NCAA women's college lacrosse. The semifinal and championship rounds were played at Talen Energy Stadium (the home of Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union) in Chester, Pennsylvania from May 27–29, 2016. All other rounds were played at campus sites, usually at the home field of the higher-seeded team, from May 13–22.

2016 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament
Dates	May 13–29, 2016
Teams	26
Finals site	Talen Energy Stadium Chester, PA
Champions	North Carolina (2nd title)
Runner-up	Maryland (19th title game)
MOP	Aly Messinger, North Carolina
NCAA Division I women's tournaments «2015 2017»

Tournament field

All NCAA Division I women's lacrosse programs were eligible for this championship, and a total of 26 teams were invited to participate. 13 teams qualified automatically by winning their conference tournaments while the remaining 13 teams qualified at-large based on their regular season records.

Teams

Seed	School	Conference	Berth type	RPI	Record
1	Maryland	Big Ten	Automatic	1	19–0
2	Florida	Big East	Automatic	3	18–1
3	North Carolina	ACC	Automatic	2	16–2
4	Syracuse	ACC	At-large	4	17–5
5	USC	MPSF	Automatic	6	19–0
6	Notre Dame	ACC	At-large	7	13–6
7	Penn	Ivy	At-large	8	13–4
8	Cornell	Ivy	Automatic	12	13–4
	Boston College	ACC	At-large	20	10–8
	Canisus	MAAC	Automatic	33	13–6
	Duke	ACC	At-large	18	10–8
	James Madison	CAA	At-large	22	10–9
	Johns Hopkins	Independent	At-large	24	10–7
	Louisville	ACC	At-large	16	12–5
	Loyola (MD)	Patriot	Automatic	14	14–5
	Massachusetts	Atlantic 10	Automatic	19	18–1
	Northwestern	Big Ten	At-large	10	10–9
	Old Dominion	Atlantic Sun	Automatic	35	16–3
	Penn State	Big Ten	At-large	15	11–6
	Princeton	Ivy	At-large	9	11–5
	Stanford	MPSF	At-large	13	14–4
	Stony Brook	America East	Automatic	11	16–3
	Towson	CAA	Automatic	5	15–3
	Virginia	ACC	At-large	17	9–8
	Wagner	NEC	Automatic	58	10–8
	Winthrop	Big South	Automatic	25	20–2

Bracket

	First Round May 13 Regional Campus Sites					Second Round May 15 Regional Campus Sites					Quarterfinals May 21–22 Campus Sites					Semifinals May 27 Talen Energy Stadium					Final May 29 Talen Energy Stadium
						1	Maryland*	14
							Johns Hopkins	8
		Virginia	10
		Johns Hopkins	12
											1	Maryland	18
												Massachusetts	3
		Princeton	12
		Massachusetts	13^
							Massachusetts	7
						8	Cornell	6
		Canisius	11
	8	Cornell*	15
																1	Maryland	19
																4	Syracuse	9
						5	USC*	14
							Stanford	8
		Stanford	9
		James Madison	8
											5	USC	11
											4	Syracuse	12
		Stony Brook	11
		Boston College	9
							Stony Brook	6
						4	Syracuse*	7
																					1	Maryland	7
																					3	North Carolina	13
						3	North Carolina*	15
							Duke	10
		Loyola (MD)	8
		Duke	14
											3	North Carolina	10
											6	Notre Dame	6
		Northwestern	15
		Louisville	5
							Northwestern	3
						6	Notre Dame*	15
																3	North Carolina	12
																	Penn state	11
	7	Penn*	17
		Wagner	7
						7	Penn	12
							Towson	4
		Towson	16
		Old Dominion	5
											7	Penn	4
												Penn State	8
		Penn State	16
		Winthrop	6
							Penn State	14
						2	Florida*	13

See also

• NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship
• NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship
• 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship