D1 MEN’s LAX Recap
It is finally NCAA tourney time. After a year hiatus, the biggest tournament in the lacrosse world is finally back. There are 16 teams vying for the coveted trophy, but in order to get to the last 16, teams either needed to win their conference title or earn an at-large bid. Long Islanders may have the opportunity to view some tournament action, as the Hofstra University is hosting two of the quarterfinal matches. Let’s take a look at how the local D1 teams played in their conference tournaments.
CAA (Hofstra):
The Hofstra men hosted the Colonial Athletic Association tournament in Hempstead and they did not disappoint the home crowd, in a thrilling 10-9 semifinal victory, against 12 ranked Delaware. The Blue Hens took an early 2-0 lead but answered back with six consecutive goals that featured a four-minute outburst by Dylan McIntosh that had himself a hat trick. The first half ended with the Pride up 6-3. Delaware, the top seed in the CAA tournament, had a five goal third quarter, holding the four seed Pride to one goal. James Philbin’s second goal of the game tied the game at 8-8 with 13:18 left in the fourth. Philbin’s goal gave momentum to Hofstra and scored two more within four minutes, including McIntosh’s fifth of the game and one from Ryan Sheridan, who also had the lone Hofstra third-quarter goal. Sheridan’s last goal prove to be the game winner as Delaware’s Tye Kurtz scored with 8:45 remaining, then both offenses went scoreless for the remainder of the game. An interesting fact: All of Hofstra’s goals were unassisted. Matt Kilkerary had 7 saves for Delaware in the loss, and Bobby Casey made 11 in the semifinal victory. Delaware ended its season 10-3, with a conference regular season championship.
In the second CAA semifinal, number nine ranked Drexel defeated UMass 13-8 with Sean Donnelly scoring five for the Dragons and Aidan Coll adding four himself. UMass took a 5-0 lead in the second quarter, with the first half ending up the Minutemen up 6-2. Drexel came back from break and scored 9 unanswered, until UMass scored with eight minutes left in the fourth. A Coll assisted Donnelly goal with 25 seconds remaining was the final blow for Drexel, as the number 2 seed ousted the three seed. Ross Blumenthal made 10 saves in the victory, while Matt Knote made 18 in the loss for UMass who finished the season 4-6
In the championship game, Drexel took a commanding lead in the first quarter, going up 7-1 and took that momentum into the second quarter scoring three more before Hofstra’s Ryan Tierney scored his second, and final career goal, with 6:02 left in the half. Both offenses were held scoreless for the remainder of the half, and the Dragons went into half, up 10-2. Hofstra outscored Drexel 9-5 in the second half, but it was not enough for the Pride to catch up, and they eventually ran out of time, losing 15-11 to a Drexel team that moves onto the NCAA tourney with a 10-2 record, both losses came back-to-back to Delaware and UMass in early March. Hofstra finishes the season 8-6, while Drexel will face number 6 Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament and that winner will face the Maryland-Vermont winner.
America East (Stony Brook):
The America East tournament took place in Baltimore, hosted by UMBC. In the opening match, number four took on 17 ranked and tournament number one UMBC. UAlbany dominated the first quarter, going up 2-0 in the first five minutes, and then bounced back after an UMBC goal and went on to score five consecutive. UMBC scored two more to close out the first quarter. The second quarter only saw two goals, both by the Retrievers. The second half featured both teams having an even level of play, with UAlbany scoring four in the third and three in the fourth. UMBC scored three in the third and four in the fourth. UAlbany’s Corey Yunker and Graydon Hogg both had hat tricks, with UMBC’s Brendan Galloway scoring five and Nick Dupuis adding four on his own. Along with the evenly talented offense, the game saw an evenly matched defense with Liam Donnelly make seven saves in the win while his counterpart Tommy Linger made eight in the final game of the season for a UMBC team that finishes with an 8-3 record and will hope to head into the offseason with their heads up, after a record season.
In the second semifinal game, 18 ranked Vermont defeated Stony Brook for the second straight game, this time 10-7. Stony Brook dominated the first quarter scoring five and holding the Catamounts to two. Neither team scored in the second. The third saw excitement, with Vermont scoring early and Stony Brook answered back before Vermont scored another one quickly for the score to be 6-4 with 5:54 left in the quarter. It was back-and-forth until Vermont got possession and sprinted down field. Stony Brook’s Chris Pickel jr. raced down as well and shoved a Vermont offender, drawing a two minute non-releasable foul with 1:53 left. Vermont took advantage and scored three goals to close out the quarter and go up 7-6. Vermont scored three more in the fourth, and Stony Brook closed out its season with a Pickel goal with 50 seconds remaining. Anthony Palma made 16 saves in the loss with Ryan Cornell making 15 in the win. The Seawolves finish out the season 8-6 and some optimism mainly in the form of Freshman standout Dylan Pallonetti who earned both conference Rookie and Attacker of the Year awards.
In the America East Championship game, UAlbany and Vermont were evenly matched for the first half, going back-and-forth with goals, tying the game and the lead. It wasn’t until the last minute of the half did the tides turn, where UAlbany scored with 53 seconds remaining followed by two Vermont goals, the second goal coming with eight seconds remaining and only five seconds after the first. The second goal came from face-off specialist Tommy Burke. After entering the half with momentum and up 8-7, the Catamounts scored five goals in the third, and all UAlbany could do was hang on for the final quarter. Will Ramos made 16 saves in the loss and Ryan Cornell made eight in the win. UAlbany finishes the season 8-5, while Vermont heads to the NCAA tournament with a 9-4 record and they will face number 3 Maryland in the first round. The winner will play the Drexel-Notre Dame winner.
NEC (LIU):
The North East Conference semifinals took place at the higher seeded teams with the first game featuring number one seed Saint Joseph’s and number four LIU. The Sharks stood into fight against 20 ranked Hawks and held their own for the most part, losing 19-11. LIU’s Mark Regan scored the first goal of the game but SJU answered back with three. Back-and-forth scoring took place until SJU scored six consecutive between the second and third quarters. The box score shows three goals for LIU in the first, second and third with SJU having five goals in the first three quarters. Will Snelders led the Sharks with four goals, while SJU had five players score hat tricks. LIU’s Will Mark made 13 saves, giving up 18 goals with John Whitenack playing the final three minutes and giving up one goal. Tucker Almany made 5 saves in the win. LIU finishes the season with a 6-5 record and looks to build from all the positives from this season.
The second NEC semifinal saw number three Bryant defeat number two Hobart 14-12. Bryant took the early lead and held on to victory with the remainder of the game evenly matched out. Hobart finished its season 6-3. Bryant went on to defeat number one seeded Saint Joseph’s 16-10. With several times the score being tied, Bryant finally took the lead for good with 1:02 left in the third and had six more goals thereafter. SJU finishes the season 9-4, while Bryant continues heads into the NCAA tournament 9-3 and will face number four and defending champs Virginia in the open round.
Here is a look at the full bracket:
