Which team impressed you with its first-round performance?

Mark Dixon: Duke was the most impressive. People may say that they didn’t have the toughest matchup with Navy, but Navy came down and had two or three scoring chances in the first four or five minutes of that game, but [senior goalkeeper Rob] Schroeder came up big. Schroeder was the one that everybody said was the Achilles’ heel for Duke, and he stepped up his play really well lately and in particular, Saturday night. And then you have that offense, which is really clicking on all cylinders. They’re sharing the ball, they’re shooting extremely well, they’re playing great together as a team. But the one thing that really stood out to me was their defense. [Freshman long-stick midfielder] C.J. Costabile has turned into a monster with the long pole. He prevented two or three scoring chances off the faceoffs with great hustle and tremendous trail checks. And even though they were winning 10-0 at halftime, that defense played whistle to whistle. They were aggressive, in pursuit, and they really got after it.

Which team surprised you?

Mark Dixon: Gosh, they all won, so can you really call that disappointing? Probably, I would say Hopkins for the reason being that they had a three-goal lead at home and Brown was able to get back into the game and force overtime. So I think if you’re Hopkins, you’re looking at a three-goal lead that evaporated, and overtime was forced on your home field. But the good news for Hopkins was that they won the game. It seems like in 2009, [senior midfielder] Brian Christopher has been the guy who has really found a way to win for Hopkins. ... But look, you won, and you’re moving on. At this stage in the season, you live to fight another day, and if you need to make adjustments, at least you have another game you can make adjustments for instead of sitting at home and wondering what-if.

Hindsight being 20/20, should North Carolina sophomore attackman Billy Bitter – who scored eight goals on nine shots in a 15-13 win against UMBC – have been a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy?

Mark Dixon: I think if you look at the list, the head-scratcher for me was Zack Greer. He is the leading scorer in the country, and he is an amazing player. However, his team doesn’t even qualify for the NCAA tournament because this is their first year of DI. That was the one thing. I thought Bitter could have taken the place of Greer.

Which quarterfinal matchup is the most intriguing?

Mark Dixon: I think they all have their intrigue. With Princeton and Cornell, Cornell won the first time around with that senior class of [midfielders Max] Seibald and [John] Glynn, and [freshman attackman Rob] Pannell is playing great. And then you’ve got Princeton, which I think may be the most balanced team in the tournament. With Maryland and Syracuse, they haven’t met since 1997. They’re two teams that aren’t familiar with each other in terms of playing each other in recent years. But I think [the quarterfinal doubleheader at] Annapolis is going to be amazing. You’ve got two high-scoring offenses facing off in both games. The question is, will those offenses continue to produce at that level or which defense or defenses will step up? Which goalie will step up and make that one save to get his team to Foxborough [the site of the final four]? I think the two games in Annapolis are the most intriguing.