Yale Lacrosse heads to NCAA tournament

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) --The Yale Lacrosse team is heading to the NCAA National Championship tournament for the first time in two decades.

"It was a little bit surreal for us because obviously the history, we've been losing you know year after year," said Matt Gibson, Yale senior.

During the past few years, the Bulldogs came close, but couldn't win the Ivy League tournament. Princeton or Cornell has always gotten in the way.

This year, the Bulldogs beat Cornell and then in the championship game, they looked fairly dominant against Princeton.

"We lost to both Cornell and Princeton earlier in the year and I think we were all excited that we got to get another shot at both of them, so to do it on Princeton's field, in front of their home crowd, it was a nice sense of accomplishment," said Michael Pratt, Yale lacrosse Captain.

The team will be heading out to South Bend to begin playing in the 16 team tournament against Notre Dame.

"It's a big deal. We're really excited. It's been a long time coming, been a lot of hard work," said Yale lacrosse coach Andrew Shay.

Shay said he's going to let the team enjoy the accomplishment for awhile, and the attention that comes with it.

"The attention from the community, from the media.  That's great too.  Never met you before, so that's, no that's great," said Shay.