The 1978 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament was the 8th annual Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament. Twelve NCAA Division I college men's lacrosse teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament.
The championship game was hosted by Rutgers University, and was played in front of 13,527 fans. The game saw the Johns Hopkins University defeat Cornell University by the score of 13–8.[1]. The finals was notable for the defeat by Hopkins of Cornell, which had come into the game riding a 42 game unbeaten streak. [2] Hopkins had lost earlier in the season to Cornell, 16-11, on April 15 at Homewood Field in Baltimore. A 15-12 setback to Navy in the 1975 NCAA semifinals was the last loss for Cornell prior to this title game. [3]
Mike O'Neill, attackman from Johns Hopkins, who was later named the Division 1 National Player of the Year, was named the top player in the Division 1 championship game, finishing with one goal and three assists. [4]
| First Round | Semifinals | Championship
May 27 |
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| 1 | Cornell | 12 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Washington & Lee | 2 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Cornell | 13 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Navy | 7 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Navy | 16 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Army | 13 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Cornell | 8 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Johns Hopkins | 13 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Maryland | 15 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Virginia | 10 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Maryland | 11 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Johns Hopkins | 17 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Johns Hopkins | 20 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Hofstra | 8 | |||||||||||
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