Minutes after Towson’s 9-6 loss to UMBC on April 1, Tigers coach Tony Seaman held court inside Johnny Unitas Stadium and insisted that the team, 2-6 at the time, still had a shot at earning an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. An at-large bid was out of the question, but Towson needed to qualify as one of the top four teams in the Colonial Athletic Association and win the conference tournament to get the automatic qualifier.

The Tigers took a step toward realizing that goal by upending then-No. 16 Delaware, 10-7, on Saturday. Towson improved to 3-6 overall and 2-1 in the conference and is currently third in the CAA standings behind No. 10 Drexel (9-2, 2-0) and No. 17 Hofstra (4-4, 2-1).

"It definitely puts us back in the picture now," Seaman said of the victory. "We beat one of the better teams in the CAA, a team with a pretty good record that had a couple big wins and was ranked."

After the loss to UMBC, several Tigers players publicly released some steam before walking back to the locker room. The mood has changed since Saturday.

"It’s completely different," senior midfielder Timmy Andre said. "It’s not easy being 3-6, and it’s very easy to leave when things aren’t going well. ... But [winning] just felt good. Everybody’s on the same page, everyone was excited about it. We’re looking forward to the next game."

Towson has three games against CAA opponents remaining, including a road contest against Sacred Heart today and a home tilt against the Dragons on Saturday. Then it’s on to the league tournament, where the Tigers can determine their future.

"Coach Seaman has said it before: you never want to leave it up to the [selection committee] to decide if you’re going to get in or not," Andre said. "We just want to win our conference. That’s always our first goal every year."