SCHENECTADY, N.Y. --- The No. 11-ranked University of Lynchburg men's lacrosse team fell in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament Saturday afternoon, dropping a 14-10 decision to Western New England on Union College's Bailey Field.
Kyle Lewis made four assists to break Lynchburg's career mark in the category, reaching 131 for his Hornet career. Dylan Wolfe led Lynchburg in scoring with three goals, and Tyler Hadley made a career-high 17 saves in front of the net.
Things started well for the Hornets as they got the ball on a face-off violation to begin the game, but both defenses held in the early going. Western New England opened the scoring at the 11:27 mark when Conor Tracy put one in the back of the net.
Lynchburg evened the tally less than 2 minutes later when Dylan Wolfe scored on a Lewis assist in a man-up situation following a Golden Bears offside penalty. WNE scored shortly after, but Lewis again dished out an assist, this time finding Jake Rust at the 5:28 mark to even the score, 2-2. Nate Shafer then scored with 2:30 left in the opening frame to give the Hornets a one-goal advantage heading into the first-quarter break.
Michael Kraus doubled the Hornet lead to open the second, winning the opening face-off and beating several defenders on his way to the goal. WNE won the ensuing bout at the X, but Hadley kept the Golden Bears at bay with three straight saves in the possession that followed. After nice goalie play from both netminders, the Golden Bears tied the game with a pair of quick goals, and the scoreboard read 4-4 with 9:24 until halftime.
The rest of the second quarter was all Hornets. Lynchburg's Cole Nestor and Marshall Rodegast both caused turnovers, the latter resulting in a Riley Mitchell goal that gave Lynchburg a 5-4 lead at the 6:31 mark. Shafer and Wolfe each added goals before halftime, the second assisted by Lewis, his 130th to tie the Lynchburg career mark.
The Hornets headed into halftime with a 7-4 lead.
After the halftime intermission, Western New England scored twice in the first minute of the third to cut the lead to one. Mitchell scored his second of the game with 12:59 left in the period to give Lynchburg some cushion, but WNE continued to chip away, scoring twice more to tie the game at the 9:25 mark.
The Golden Bears took the lead on a Tracy goal with 5:38 remaining and never trailed again. WNE added another to lead 10-8 headed into the fourth.
Taking advantage of a WNE penalty, Wolfe completed the hat trick with a man-up goal that came on Lewis' record-breaking assist. Lynchburg won the following face-off, but a save by WNE goalie Carter Randall kept the Golden Bears' lead intact, and after both defenses held for more than 6 minutes, WNE's Jared Newall extended the lead back to two goals with a score.
Lynchburg brought the deficit back to one on Brett Rogers' highlight-reel goal with 4:20 to go, but that's again as close as the Hornets got. WNE made use of a man-up goal to increase the lead to two, and the Golden Bears added two more on an empty net in the final 90 seconds to bring the score to its 14-10 final.
WNE enjoyed the advantage at the face-off nearly all afternoon, winning 16 of 27 attempts, and the Golden Bears collected 41 ground balls to Lynchburg's 25. Otherwise, the two teams' statistical lines were nearly identical; both teams managed 43 shots and committed 20 turnovers.
Mitchell and Shafer each scored twice for the Hornets, while Rodegast led the defensive effort with two caused turnovers and a pair of ground balls.
Lewis' 131st-career assist bested Lynchburg's previous record of 130, set by Aaron Murphy between 2013 and 2016. Lewis accomplished the feat in just less than three full seasons; he missed the COVID-19 shortened 2020 campaign in its entirety due to injury. The senior from Suwanee, Ga. already had a record-breaking season under his belt in 2022, topping the single-season assists record he set a season ago with a program- and ODAC-record 63 this year.
The Hornets also set the team's single-season record for assists, dishing out 211, and the team's 556 points and 345 goals rank second on the program leaderboard.
Lynchburg finished the season with a 15-5 record, made the program's 15th NCAA tournament appearance, and won its ninth Old Dominion Athletic Conference title. The Hornets' NCAA berth was the 10th in a row for the program. Lynchburg is now 13-15 all-time in the national tournament.