The 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship was the 44th annual single-elimination tournament to help determine the national champion of NCAA Division I women's college lacrosse. The semifinal and national championship rounds were played at Martin Stadium on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on May 22 for the semifinals and May 24 for the championship game. All other rounds were played at campus sites, at the home field of the higher-seeded team, from May 8–14. First and second round games were broadcast on ESPN+, quarterfinals and semifinal games were broadcast on ESPNU, and the national championship was broadcast on ESPN.

Tournament field All NCAA Division I women's lacrosse programs were eligible for this championship, and a total of 29 teams were invited to participate. In total, 15 teams qualified automatically by winning their conference tournaments, while the remaining 14 teams qualified at-large based on their regular-season records.

Teams Seed School Conference Berth Type RPI Record1 Northwestern Big TenAutomatic115–32 North Carolina ACCAutomatic216–13 Maryland Big TenAt-large316–34 Johns Hopkins Big TenAt-large714–45 Stony Brook CAAAutomatic417–26 Navy Patriot Automatic518–17 Michigan Big TenAt-large912–68 Colorado Big 12Automatic814–3 Army West Point PatriotAt-large1214–4 Boston College ACCAt-large199–7 Clemson ACCAt-large1414–5 Davidson Atlantic 10Automatic3415–4 Denver Big EastAutomatic1315–3 Fairfield MAACAutomatic2415–3 Florida Big 12At-large1015–3JacksonvilleASUNAutomatic3313–5 James Madison AmericanAutomatic1513–6 Loyola (MD) PatriotAt-large2312–7 Mercer Big SouthAutomatic5513–6 Notre Dame ACCAt-large3012–5 Penn St. Big TenAt-large1812–6 Princeton IvyAutomatic1611–6 Rutgers Big TenAt-large2010–8 Stanford ACCAt-large1115–4 Stonehill NEC Automatic7213–6 Syracuse ACCAt-large613–5 UAlbany American EastAutomatic3512–5 UMass MACAutomatic2616–2 Yale IvyAt-large2113–4

Bracket Tournament bracket

*First and second round host

Tournament notes The North Carolina Tar Heels entered the tournament as the reigning national champions, after winning the national championship at the 2025 NCAA tournament. North Carolina entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the tournament in its title defense season. However, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament was earned by Northwestern. The Wildcats defeated the Tar Heels once during the regular season, 17–16 in overtime at Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Wildcats went on to win the Big Ten women's lacrosse tournament finishing the season with a record of 15–3 and securing the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

Analysts and the media considered the national title favorite to be Northwestern, with North Carolina, Maryland and Johns Hopkins being among the other contenders.

Among the top contenders for the national championship in 2026, Northwestern was playing for its ninth title and first since 2023, North Carolina was seeking back-to-back titles, Maryland was playing for its fifteenth title and first since 2019, and John Hopkins was hoping to win its first-ever national title.

Northwestern, North Carolina, and Maryland all earned first-round byes in the tournament.

Record by Conference +Overview of conference performance in the 2026 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournamentConference# of BidsRecordWin % Big Ten 6 11–5 6 5 3 3 1 1 ACC 6 8–6 6 5 2 1 1 – Patriot 3 3–3 3 2 1 – – – American 1 1–1 1 1 – – – – CAA 1 2–1 1 1 1 – – – Big 12 2 2–2 2 1 1 – – – ASUN 1 0–1 1 – – – – – Atlantic 10 1 0–1 1 – – – – – Big East 1 1–1 1 1 – – – – MAAC 1 0–1 1 – – – – – Ivy 2 0–2 2 – – – – – American East 1 0–1 1 – – – – – Big South 1 0–1 1 – – – – – MAC 1 0–1 1 – – – – – NEC 1 0–1 1 – – – – –

See also NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship

References

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