The 2012 NCAA Division I lacrosse tournament was the 42nd annual tournament hosted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the team champion of men's college lacrosse among its Division I programs, held at the end of the 2012 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse season. The tournament was played from May 12âÂÂ28, 2012.
Loyola won their first ever NCAA lacrosse title, defeating unseeded Maryland, 9âÂÂ3. Despite beginning the season unranked, the Greyhounds became the ninth school to win an NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse championship since tournament play began in 1971. Loyola won 12 straight games to start the season before losing their only game, an overtime loss to Johns Hopkins. The Greyhounds' Eric Lusby set a then-tournament record for goals with 17.
The championship game was played at Gillette Stadium, the home of the NFL's New England Patriots, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, with 41,935 fans in attendance.
The United States Naval Academy hosted two quarterfinal matches on May 19 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. Drexel University hosted the other two quarterfinal matches on May 20 at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Sixteen teams were selected to compete in the tournament based upon their performance during the regular season, and for some, by means of a conference tournament automatic qualifier.
Canisius (MAAC), Lehigh (Patriot League), Loyola (ECAC), Massachusetts (CAA), Stony Brook (America East), Syracuse (Big East), and Yale (Ivy League), earned an automatic bid into the tournament by winning their respective conference tournaments. During the tournament, the Colgate Raiders won their first ever NCAA Tournament game, defeating Massachusetts by a score of 13âÂÂ11.