Men’s lacrosse upends Merrimack and clinches playoff berth

ALBANY, NY ( NEWS10 ) — The University at Albany men’s lacrosse team took sole possession of first place in the America East standings with a 14-8 win over Merrimack on Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Great Danes clinched a postseason berth and will play for the #1 seed in the conference tournament this Saturday with a home game against Binghamton.

Key Stat Lines

• 11 different Great Danes found the back of the net in the win.
• Alex Pfeiffer , Parker Emmett , and Graydon Hogg led the way with two goals each.
• Silas Richmond dished out four helpers and scored once to lead the team with five points.
• Justin Lee scored behind-the-back with the long pole for his first collegiate goal.
• Regan Endres dominated at the X, going 19-23 while also scoring his second goal of the season.
• Landon Whitney made nine saves for a .529 save percentage.

How it Happened:

• UAlbany struck first with a goal from Regan Endres right off the opening faceoff, his second of the season.
• The Warriors rattled off two straight towards the end of a low-scoring first quarter, taking a 2-1 lead into the second.
• The Great Danes used the second quarter to rattle off five straight goals to take a 6-2 advantage. Scoring was Parker Emmett , two from Graydon Hogg , Silas Richmond , and Alex Pfeiffer .
• Merrimack’s Trace Hogan was able to send one home with .6 remaining in the half to make it 6-3 heading into the locker rooms.
• UAlbany finished the first half with 23 shots, 13 ground balls, eight turnovers, and went 7-10 at the X. Merrimack had 16 shots, eight ground balls, and nine turnovers.
• UAlbany started the second half with four goals in the first three minutes. Conner Fingar scored off the opening draw before Jacob Smith got involved with the long pole, scoring his second of the year. Ryan Doherty then scored off a quick feed from Silas Richmond to make it 10-3 before Justin Lee scored his first career goal on a behind-the-back shot with the long pole, 11-4.
• Two quick goals from the Warriors with less than five minutes remaining in the third brought the lead back down to five goals, but Daniel Kesselring pushed it back up to six with his first of the day, 12-6.
• Pfeiffer scored his second of the game to start the scoring in the fourth, making it 13-6.
• Merrimack’s Jack Rooney made it 13-7 with 5:25 on the clock, UAlbany’s Will Hardy answered 36 seconds later to make it 14-7.
• The final goal of the game was scored by Merrimack’s Ewan Temple with 1:03 remaining to make it 14-8.

Next: The regular season is set to come to a close next Saturday when the team hosts Binghamton at 7:00 p.m. at Casey Stadium for Senior Night.

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