Delaware Falls to #19 UMass 11-5 in Regular Season Finale; Will Travel for CAA Tournament
April 29, 2011
File Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell
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• AMHERST, Mass. -- Thanks to another tough outing on offense for the University of Delaware men’s lacrosse squad, the Blue Hens will now have to hit the road for the post-season.
The Blue Hens (9-6, 4-2 CAA), needing a win to clinch a home berth in the four-team CAA Tournament, could not get the job done Friday night as No. 19 ranked Massachusetts got five goals from Connor Mooney and broke open a close game by scoring six third-quarter goals on the way to an 11-5 victory at Garber Field.
Delaware, the defending CAA champion, will now be the No. 4 seed when the CAA semifinals begin Wednesday night at home sites. The Hens will travel to the winner of Saturday’s Hofstra vs. Penn State game.
Massachusetts (9-4, 4-2 CAA), which won for the fourth time in the last five games, secured the No. 3 seed and will travel to the loser of the Penn State-Hofstra matchup. The two semifinal winners will meet at the site of the highest remaining seed on Saturday with the winner earning an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Hens trailed just 3-1 at halftime, but the Minutemen exploded for six goals in the third quarter to take control and never looked back. Mooney led all scorers with five goals while Will Manny had a goal and three assists, Art Kell tallied once and dished out two assists, and Mike Fetterly contributed two assists.
Senior Kevin Kaminski led the Blue Hens with a goal and an assist while Eric Smith, Nick Elsmo, Nick Diachenko, and Dom Sebastiani also scored. Smith has now scored a point in all 15 games this season but Grant Kaleikau was held scoreless and had an eight-game goal-scoring streak snapped. Blue Hen goalkeeper Noah Fossner recorded 10 saves in goal for the UD defense.
Massachusetts also got a big effort from goalkeeper Tim McCormack, who turned back 10 shots, and from Antony Toresco, who scored a goal and won 13 of his 15 faceoff attempts.
The Blue Hens, who were coming off a 13-3 loss to Penn State last Saturday, struggled offensively for the second straight game and managed just 30 shots. Delaware has now scored five goals or less in consecutive games for the first time since the 2002 season.
Smith gave Delaware a 1-0 lead with 4:32 left in the opening stanza with an unassisted goal but UMass answered with goals from Kell, Mooney, and Colin Fleming to go up 3-1 at halftime.
UMass increased it lead to 4-1 on a goal by Ryan Hantverk just three minutes into the second half, but Delaware cut the lead to 4-2 on a goal by Diachenko at the 8:40 mark.
But that would be as close as the Hens would get as Mooney answered with two goals just 33 seconds apart to push the UMass lead to 6-2.
Delaware’s Elsmo stopped the streak with a goal, but UMass came back with three straight tallies and took an insurmountable 9-3 advantage into the final stanza.
