Postseason Tournament Recap: Everything Other Than The Big BBQ

If you only follow the NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament, there’s plenty of other lacrosse action out there that you missed. We’ve even crowned a few national champions too!

So let’s get right to it.

The Panthers advanced to their first D2 Final Four since 2013. Gordon Purdie, Jr. had a hat-trick, while Nick Reisig had two goals. Sophomore goaltender Brendan McDougal made nine big saves in the win.

They’ll take on Merrimack on Saturday, who finally defeated Le Moyne in their third try this season. The Warriors got a pair of three goal and one assist performances from attackman Michael O’Connell and midfielder Kyle Stenberg, while goaltender Edward Hellier made 12 saves. Earlier in the season, Adelphi defeated Merrimack by three goals.

Meanwhile, the Saints continue to dominate Division II with a 14-5 win over Wingate. Attackman Charlie Sheehan had four goals and two assists, and midfielder Ryan Maciejewski scored four times as well. Midfielder Kevin Reisman was dominant at the X as usually, going 16-of-17 on draws and scooping up 10 ground balls, and junior goaltender Cole Aikens made 12 saves.

Limestone hopes to defeat Tampa on Sunday, who edged out Lenoir-Rhyne by three goals in a slight upset. The Spartans got up early, leading 6-3 after the first quarter, and a 5-0 run from the middle of the first quarter to early in the second. Attackman Andrew Kew scored four goals, Jake Mosher McGraw recorded a pair of goals and assists, and Conor Whipple had three assists. Tampa fell to Limestone, 12-10, earlier in the season.

A look at the bracket:

We’ll begin with the Third Round. The defending D3 champs scored 22 goals in three quarters to defeat Hampden-Sydney to move on to the Quarterfinals. The Sea Gulls were led by seven goals and four assists from Nathan Blondino, as well as six goals and three assists from Nick Garbarino, and five goals from Brendan Bromwell. They’ll take on Cabrini, who got four goal performances from Tyler Kostack and Timmy Brooks. The Cavaliers got their 17th win of the season, which tied a program record.

The Big Red was hot from the start, scoring the game’s first 11 of 12 goals in a span of 18 minutes to take the eventual 25-11 win over Illinois Wesleyan. But it was attackman Spencer Butler who made history, as he scored 11 goals, which broke the Denison single-game and NCAA Division III Tournament scoring records. Fellow attackman Liam Rooney had four goals and seven assists to tie for a game-high 11 points. Up next would be Lynchburg, who used a six-goal second quarter to pull from York. Evan Lombardo had a hat-trick and an assist, while Logan Adams and Andrew Thomas also scored twice. But it was goaltender CJ Santora who stood on his head and made 19 saves.

RIT had big first and fourth quarters (eight and six goals respectively) to take care of Stevenson in Rochester. Ryan Lee had three goals and four assists, Chad Levick had five goals and one assist, and Kyle Killen recorded three goals and two assists. Goaltender Nick Nesbitt made 14 saves, two less than Stevenson’s Ross Dinan. RIT would play Upstate rival SUNY Cortland today. They doubled up on St. Lawrence, thanks to five goals and four assists from Thomas McNaney, six goals and three assists from Devin Phelps, and a career-high three goals from Tyler Brown.

Finally, Bates moved on to the Quarterfinals with a few big performances. Matt Chlastawa scored nine goals and had four assists, while Charlie Fay had eight goals and four assists, and Kyle Weber scored four goals and three assists. Rob Strain made 15 saves in the win. They would take on a tough Wesleyan team, who took care of Tufts. Harry Stanton recorded six goals and one assist, with Carter Hawthorne and Tom Dupont added three goals. Keeper Ted Bergman made 13 saves.

A look at the bracket before the Quarterfinal games:

Salisbury will make another appearance in the semifinals after trouncing Cabrini to avenge their only loss from the regular season. Carson Kalama had six goals, while Blondino had a pair of goals to go along five assists, and Garbarino had two goals and three assists as well. It was also the 500th coaching victory for Jim Berkman. Berkman is the only lacrosse coach across the NCAA to reach the 500 win plateau. They will host Denison Sunday, who will make their third ever Final Four appearance and their first since 2001. Butler went off again with five goals, and Rooney had a goal to go along with five assists.

The other semifinal will feature RIT taking on Wesleyan. The Tigers will appear in the semis for the fourth time in the last five years, and ninth time overall. RIT started the game on a 7-0 run and never looked back, thanks to hat-tricks from Lee and Brendan MacDonald. Levick also added two goals and two assists, and Nesbitt stopped 14 shots. Their opponent, Wesleyan, will make their third ever semifinal appearance, and first since 2007 with a thrilling one-goal win. The Cardinals were ahead, 6-0, at the half, but Bates scored all 13 goals in the second half, and tied the game up with 1:29 left. The game-winner came from Stanton, his fifth of the game, with 38 seconds to play. Christian Barker had a goal and four assists, and Taylor Ghesquiere put up three goals and an assist, with Bergman making 13 saves.

An updated look at the D3 bracket:

Nothing very surprising from the results of the First Round games, besides the Navy upset of Penn. Julia Collins got the eventual game-winner for the Mids with 5:52 left in the game. That would not be the only upset from the weekend.

Two seeded teams got booted in the likes of #3 Florida and #6 Syracuse. So we are guaranteed to have at least one unseeded team in the women’s Final Four next weekend. There are some interesting matchups to watch for this weekend, including Maryland hosting Stony Brook.

An updated look at the bracket:

Here are the Women’s Division II and III brackets as well:

In the NJCAA (JuCo) title game, Onondaga Community College returned to being the top dog by beating Howard, 15-14. Russ Oakes (younger brother of former Albany Great Dane Seth Oakes) and Austin Staats (younger brother of former Syracuse Orange Randy Staats) each had three goals for OCC.

In the MCLA Division I National Championship game, Grand Canyon won their second title in three years by taking care of Chapman, 12-8.

In the MCLA Division II National Championship game, Concordia-Irvine won their first ever National Championship with a 13-10 win over defending national champion St. Thomas.