INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The University of Delaware men’s lacrosse team will return to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years Sunday afternoon as the No. 17 ranked Blue Hens travel to Charlottesville, VA to take on defending national champion University of Virginia in the opening round of the tournament at 5 p.m. at Klockner Stadium. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.

The Blue Hens, who earned an automatic berth to the 16-team tournament after capturing the Colonial Athletic Association title with a 10-7 win at No. 14 Towson Saturday, will enter the tournament riding a five-game winning streak and a four-game road winning streak. Delaware (11-5) will meet the Cavaliers for the first time since dropping a 17-10 decision to UVA in the 1999 NCAA quarterfinals at Princeton, NJ.

Virginia, the tournament No. 2 seed and ranked third in last week’s United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Top 20 poll, captured the NCAA Tournament title a year ago and brings a record of 12-3 into the game. The Cavaliers, who reeled off 10 straight wins at one point in the season, are coming off a 12-9 loss to Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game April 29.

“No question, we will be ready to play,” said Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaws (at right), who also led the Blue Hens to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1984, 1999, and 2005. “There won’t be any case of nerves from any of our guys. We are the healthiest we’ve been all season and really have built momentum after winning two CAA games this past week. This is the best we’ve been all year and we really like the direction we are headed. Virginia is an outstanding team. They are young in some spots but have one of the most explosive attack units in the nation.”

In fact, the game will feature two of the highest scoring offensive units in the country as Delaware entered last week ranked third nationally with 12.2 goals per game while the Cavaliers came in at No. 6, averaging 11.6 goals per game. The Blue Hens have scored 19 or more goals five times this season.

The Blue Hens featured a balanced attack led by leading scorer Adam Zuder-Havens (32 goals, 9 assists), senior midfielders Jordan Hall (21 goals, 10 assists) and Dan Deckelbaum (22 goals, 7 assists), and three-time NCAA faceoff leader Alex Smith (74.1 percent). Senior Rob Smith, a first-year transfer from Georgetown, leads the defensive unit and junior goalkeeper Tommy Scherr (7.91 goals against average, .576 save percentage) is coming off two outstanding efforts in the CAA Tournament.

Virginia, which lost to Delaware’s CAA rival Drexel 11-10 in the season opener back in February, followed with 10 straight victories before falling to Duke 7-6 in overtime during the regular season. The Cavaliers only other loss was the ACC title game setback to the Blue Devils. Ben Rubeor ranks No. 2 in the country in points per game (4.53) and No. 3 in goals per game (3.07) with 46 goals and 22 assists. Also leading the Cavs on offense are Danny Glading (27 goals, 16 assists) and Garrett Billings (21 goals, 22 assists) while goalkeeper Kip Turner ranks 10th in the nation in goals allowed at 7.48 per game. The Cavaliers are led by head coach Dom Starsia.

“Virginia is obviously a very good team so we have our work cut out for us,” said Delaware’s Alex Smith, a two-time All-American and the CAA Player of the Year and CAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player this spring. “We are on a roll over the last five games and everyone is playing well. It’s been a real team effort and we have proven we are an NCAA playoff team. The biggest things we need to do is limit our turnovers, but we feel like we can match up with them.”

Smith has led the NCAA in faceoffs each of the past three seasons and also leads the NCAA in groundballs with 150 this season. He is the NCAA all-time leader in faceoff victories with 990 and his 533 career groundballs are just eight shy of the NCAA and University of Delaware record of 541 by Steve Shaw in 1983-86.

Delaware, which captured its 21st conference title all-time with the win over Towson Saturday night but its first since capturing the 1999 America East conference crown, have made three previous trips to the NCAA Tournament. The Hens lost to Johns Hopking 10-3 in the first round in 1984, defeated UMBC 12-11 in overtime in the first round before falling to Virginia 17-10 in the quarterfinals in 1999, and fell to host Navy 9-7 in the opening round in 2005.

In other first round NCAA matchups, No. 1 seed Duke (14-2) will host Providence (7-9), No. 3 Johns Hopkins (9-4) will host Notre Dame (11-3), No. 4 Cornell (13-0) will host Towson (9-6), No. 5 Albany (14-2) will host Loyola, No. 6 Georgetown (11-2) will host Princeton (10-3), No. 7 Maryland (10-5) will host UMBC (10-5), and No. 8 North Carolina (9-5) will host Navy (11-3).

The winner of the Delaware-Virginia game will take on the winner of the Maryland-UMBC contest in the quarterfinals at Navy May 20. Princeton is the other quarterfinal site. The NCAA Final Four will be held May 26-28 in Baltimore.

Third-ranked Virginia will be the highest ranked opponent for the Blue Hens since a 12-6 loss to then No. 2 Hofstra in the 2006 CAA Tournament championship game. The Hens will be looking to snap 20-game losing streak vs. Top 10 teams since the NCAA win over then No. 10 UMBC back in 1999.