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W&L Laxmen Fall In Semifinals
The 13th-ranked Washington and Lee University men's lacrosse team saw its 2024 season come to an end on Sunday, May 19 in the NCAA Division III semifinals, 19-13, as No. 6 Tufts pulled away late in Salisbury, Md.
The Generals (16-6), under the direction of 17th-year head coach Gene McCabe, saw themselves in similar territory as the quarterfinal round to start the game, trailing by a 4-1 score through the opening five minutes. However, W&L stormed back right away with six consecutive goals to close the quarter to jump ahead, 7-4. The run was led by Hills Burns who scored three of the six goals, along with two goals from Alex Burns a goal and two assists from James Haley.
The Jumbos (17-3) countered with a strong second quarter in which they outscored the Blue and White, 6-1, to flip the lead back into their favor, 10-8, at halftime. Six different Tufts players scored a goal in the second, with Sam Manino tallying the W&L goal.
Jed Heald got the Generals back within a goal to open the third, scrambling from midfield to behind the Tufts cage, before scoring an acrobatic goal just outside the crease. Overall, W&L and Tufts alternated scoring the next eight goals in the game, keeping the Jumbos ahead, 14-12, with 1:34 left in the third.
Will Emsing scored for Tufts to make it a 14-12 game, which started a final 6-1 run to close things out. Brown had the final tally for the Generals, beating the third quarter buzzer to make it a 15-13 game at the time.
Haley led the W&L offense with five total points on a goal and four assists, while Brown and Burns both scored four goals and picked up three ground balls. In addition to his goal, Heald led the defense with two caused turnovers, plus one ground ball, while Tyler Spano won 16 face-offs and scooped up eight ground balls.
Charlie Tagliaferri tied Haley with five points, as he scored three goals and assisted on two. Emsing and Garrett Kelly both scored three times, with Kelly adding an assist. Parker Merril was the top face-off man on the day, with a 16-of-24, 16 ground ball performance. Kelly Logan Lee both caused two turnovers, while Kristian Rosario collected three ground balls and a caused turnover.
W&L goalie Nick De Cain played all 60 minutes and made 10 saves. His counterpart, Connor Garzone made 15 stops across the duration of the game.
With his 16 faceoff wins, Spano broke the single-season face-off wins record of 285 set by Jack Hodgson (Class of 2020) during the 2019 season. Spano concludes his impressive rookie season with 300 face-off wins on a 0.648 success rate, plus 195 ground balls.
Brown's record-breaking senior season ends with 76 goals following his four-goal performance. He finishes his career as the single-season scoring leader, and the fifth all-time leading goal scorer with 156 career goals. With one game remaining in the Division III men's lacrosse season, Brown leads the nation in shot percentage (goals/shot) at 0.581.
Burns's four-goal game capped off another prolific season that saw him enter the program's career points Top 10. In 48 career games played, Burns will go into his senior season tied for ninth place with Cameron Dabir '15 with 176 points (111 goals, 65 assists).
In the quarterfinals on May 18, the Generals earned a 16-15 overtime upset road win over No. 1 Salisbury (21-1). Burns, who led the Generals with four goals, scored 46 seconds into overtime to complete a furious comeback.
For more on these games, visit www.generalssports.com.
W&L Women’s Laxers Fall In Quarterfinals
Fifth-ranked Salisbury ended No. 7 Washington and Lee University's women's lacrosse season with a 12-8 win in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals on Sunday, May 19 in Salisbury, Md.
SU (17-3) used a pair of 4-1 quarters, in the second and third, to pull away from the Generals (18-4).
The two teams split the opening ten goals. The Generals contingent was riding high as W&L went out ahead 4-1 in the first stanza. Salisbury answered with their own 4-1 stanza in the second and again in the third.
All knotted up at five at halftime, the Sea Gulls struck first out of the break to take a 6-5 lead at the 12:40 mark. W&L’s Alex Petras then matched that score to tie up the contest at 6-all.
Five scoreless minutes passed and finally, on a wild 7 vs. 4 situation in favor of the Sea Gulls, Camryn Pepper found Mary Hanzsche for what would prove to be the goal needed to put SU back on top and help the Sea Gulls head back to Virginia's Championship City.
With 3:22 and with seven seconds on the clock, two unanswered SU scores from Caroline Knight capped the third period.
In the final stanza, the two teams were scoreless for the opening 10 minutes. W&L co-captain Shannon Timoney was able to break up the quarter's blank slate when Claire Horner spotted the senior cutting across the middle. Shannon caught the pass right-handed and found the back of the net with a Sports Center worthy backhanded twizzler shot. The ball rose from low to high and brought the Generals back within two scores, 9-7.
The hosts scored the next three goals to go up 12-7 before Hannah Bishop stopped the bleeding and scored on a player-up opportunity at 3:07 to cap the afternoon's scoring on both sides of the field.
Salisbury outshot W&L 36-25 and had advantages in both ground balls and draw controls, 22-16 and 14-10, respectively.
The Sea Gulls held W&L scoreless on all five free-position attempts and scored three of their own five.
Washington and Lee uncharacteristically recorded 19 turnovers and SU limited themselves to 15 turnovers.
The Generals caused 13 of SU's 15 turnovers. The Sea Gulls matched the caused turnovers statistic with 13 as well.
W&L senior goalie Caroline Kranich made 11 saves.
The Generals were successful on 19-of-24 clearing attempts
Julia Thompson led W&L with three goals, a team-high for the Generals, Shannon Timoney scored a pair of goals, and Petras, Bishop and Horner rounded out the scoring with one goal each.
Defensively, Libby Ford recorded four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Eugenie Rovegno added three ground balls, three caused turnovers and seven draw controls.
To reach the quarterfinals, the Generals earned a 12-10 win over No. 21 Christopher Newport University in the Round of 16 on May 18 in Salisbury. Bishop led W&L with four goals.
The Generals, under the direction of second-year head coach Maddie Coleman, won their 14th consecutive Old Dominion Athletic title earlier this month.
For more on these games, visit www.generalssports.com.
