Top NCAA women’s lacrosse teams are fighting for automatic NCAA bids in conference tourneys

The GIST: Hear that roar? It’s the women’s lacrosse postseason. Teams are feverishly trying to lock down conference tournament trophies — and the automatic berths to the national tournament that come with them — ahead of Sunday’s selection show.

• The ACC, arguably the most head-to-head competitive conference, has already awarded their hardware (congrats, No. 2 Boston College!), but for the rest, the party’s just beginning. Here’s where the national tourney favorites are duking it out.

Big Ten: With more ranked squads than any other conference, the Big Ten championship is a BFD — especially as it overlaps with their ultra-competitive men’s tournament. No. 6–seed Rutgers already pulled off a massive upset in Saturday’s quarter-finals, so expect some semifinal spice tomorrow when they face No. 2 Penn State at 3:30 p.m. ET on BTN.

• But first, check out No. 1 Northwestern vs. No. 5 Johns Hopkins as Northwestern sixth-year Izzy Scane chases history: With seven more goals, she’ll break the all-time Division I scoring record, women’s or men’s. “Izzy Watch” begins at 1 p.m. ET.

Patriot League: It’s easy to see why top-seeded Loyola Maryland is the highest-ranked team not from the Big Ten or ACC: They blazed through conference play undefeated and seem primed to reach their 10th consecutive conference tourney final. In their way? No. 6–seed Lehigh, who hopes the momentum from their big quarter-final upset will carry them through tomorrow’s 3 p.m. ET semi.

AAC: No. 1–seed Florida, another national Top-10 team who went undefeated in conference play, has been running the AAC for years. But this season, No. 2 James Madison is stronger than ever and could challenge the Gators…assuming both survive tomorrow’s semifinals, which start at 5:30 p.m. ET.