SALISBURY, MD (May 19, 2024) -- For the second straight season, the Tufts University men's lacrosse team will head to Philadelphia to play for a national title, as the No. 8 Jumbos pulled away from No. 16 Washington & Lee University Sunday in the 2024 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Tournament Semifinals for a 19-13 win in action from Sea Gull Stadium on the campus of Salisbury University.
With the victory Tufts (17-3) will now travel down the the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, Lincoln Financial Field, to take on No. 2 Rochester Institute of Technology Sunday, May 26 at 1 p.m. in the national championship game. RIT knocked off Bowdoin College in the other national semifinal Sunday, 19-11.
Tufts will be making its seventh trip to the national championship game on Sunday, looking for its fourth NCAA title and first since 2015. The Jumbos will be making their first back-to-back trips to the national title game since making it three straight seasons in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Tufts won the title in 2014 and 2015.
As for the game on Sunday, the first half was one of runs for both squads. Tufts scored four of the first five goals over the first five minutes of the game, capped by a
Ben Frisoli pole goal to make it 4-1. W&L netted the next six straight goals, including three from Hillis Burns to make it 7-4 after the opening stanza.
In the second, Tufts would steal the momentum back as
Jack Regnery's goal at 11:16 spurned a six-goal period for the Jumbos punctuated by a rocket goal in transition from first-year
Jordan Ito to make it 10-8 Jumbos at the break.
The Generals wouldn't go away though as the two teams alternated scored through the third quarter before
Garrett Kelly gave Tufts its largest lead of the game at 15-12 with 59 seconds left in the period. Washington & Lee would make it 15-13 with no time left on the clock on Alex Brown's fourth of the game, but that would be it for W&L in the scoring department.
Senior goalkeeper
Conner Garzone would stop the final four shots on goal he saw on the night, and Tufts outscored the Generals 4-0 in the final stanza to earn the six-goal win and trip to next week's final.
One of the big keys to the game on Sunday was Tufts' ability to neutralize Washington & Lee's dynamic first-year face-off specialist Tyler Spano. The tandem of
Parker Merril and
Victor Salcedo did just that, winning 19-of-35 face-offs including a 16-of-24 day for Merrill, who collected a season-high 16 ground balls. It was the most for a Jumbo player since Merril picked up 17 as a first-year back in 2022 against Connecticut College.
Garzone played all 60 minutes in net for Tufts, posting a very strong game with 15 saves and his 19th win of the season. Junior
Charlie Tagliaferri finished with three goals and two assists in the victory, while Kelly and classmate
Brooks Hauser each netted two goals as well.
First-year
Will Emsing scored on all three of his shots on goal, recording his first hat trick as a Jumbo. Regnery had two goals on the night, and
Max Ettinghausen also scored twice to go with two grounders, an assist and a caused turnover.
First-year
Logan Lee led the team with two caused turnovers on Sunday, adding a loose ball pickup, and junior
Michael Ayers scooped up five grounders. Senior
Kristian Rosario and junior
Joey Waldbaum also each tallied three ground balls in the win, helping Tufts post a 45-34 edge in the grounders ledger.
Tufts finished with a 62-45 lead in shots on the day, and tallied 25 successful clears in 28 attempts.
Burns and Brown each led the Generals with four goals apiece, while James Haley finished with a goal and four assists. Spano was 16-for-35 at the "X" on the night with eight ground balls, while Nick De Cain stopped 10 shots in goal.
Next Sunday's meeting with RIT will be the 11th all-time meeting with the Tigers, as these two schools have met in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three years. RIT and Tufts played back on March 16 of this season, with the Jumbos falling 16-11 in Owings Mills, MD. Last season, Tufts knocked off RIT in the national semifinals 15-11. Sunday will be the first meeting in a national title game.
--JUMBOS--
