LEXINGTON, Va. – Junior
Jack Elliott recorded career highs in both points (7) and goals (5) on Tuesday night to lead the 10th-ranked Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team to a 14-11 win over No. 19 Roanoke and secure the top seed for the ODAC Championship tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Maroons (13-4, 7-2 ODAC) struck first and scored two of the first three goals of the game inside the opening 6:27. Following a Patrick Cullen goal that made it a 2-1 RC lead, W&L (13-3, 9-0 ODAC) first-year face-off man
Tyler Spano spurred a 3-0 run with a goal at 8:14, followed by scores from junior
Hillis Burns and senior
Leif Smith. Burns and Cullen led their respective sides with two goals each in the first quarter, as W&L held a 5-4 advantage through 15 minutes.
The Generals then clamped down on the Maroons, allowing just one goal over the next 17:30, while scoring six times of their own to move out to an 11-5 lead. Junior
Jack Elliott led the W&L scorers with three goals in that span, with an additional two assists from Burns.
Roanoke then rebounded with a 4-1 run into the fourth quarter, ending with a Luca Docking goal with 12:10 left in regulation to make it a 12-9 game. The game then went scoreless for the next 4:20 before W&L senior
Alex Brown found the back of the net just before the shot clock expired, followed by another goal from Elliott just over a minute later.
The Maroons tallied the final two goals of the game with 4:24 and 2:41 remaining, but the W&L defense held strong the rest of the way to close out the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Elliott led the way for the Generals' offense with season highs in points, goals and assists (2), with his five goals and seven points also setting new single-game career highs. Burns came in next at four points on two goals and two assists, and Brown logged three goals for his 12th hat trick of the season. Spano added a 17-of-25 performance on face-offs to his one goal, and he also scooped up nine ground balls.
Sophomore
Chris Datz and first-year
Ryan Donahue totaled four ground balls each, plus a caused turnover by Datz, while sophomore
Jay O'Keefe caused two turnovers. In goal, first-year
Nick De Cain played all 60 minutes and made 12 saves to earn the win.
Sean Kennedy paced the Roanoke offense with three points on three goals, while Julian Kammerman and Cullen both scored twice. Jake Brader notched a team-high six ground balls, and Docking recorded three ground balls and two points (1g, 1a). Taylor Lewis minded the RC net for all 60 minutes and made 13 saves.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
With his three goals, Brown passed Rob Morgan (53) for the fifth-most goals scored in a season in program history. Now with 55 goals, Brown is tied with Matt Dugan '01 (55 - 2000) for fourth place on the single-season leaderboard. He needs two more to tie Dugan's 1999 total of 57 for third place and five more to tie A.J. Witherell's '19 and Ande Jenkins' 97 single-season record of 60.
As a team, the Generals' win on Tuesday was their ninth consecutive overall win, and it capped a perfect 9-0 season in ODAC play, which secures them the top overall seed for the upcoming ODAC Tournament and a bye into the semifinals. It is the second time in the last three seasons W&L has been undefeated in ODAC play and the fourth time in the last six full seasons without a conference loss.
The Maroons entered Tuesday's contest leading all of Division III in goals scored per game at 19.69. Their 11 goals in the losing effort marked their second-lowest total in a game this season.
TEAM STATS:
W&L held positive margins in total shots (51-47), ground balls (28-22), and committed two fewer turnovers (10-8) than the Maroons.
UP NEXT:
The Generals will close out the 2024 regular season on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. when they travel to face No. 7 Christopher Newport in the seventh annual Lacrosse the Nations Cup game.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
