LYNCHBURG, Va. – Behind six points from senior
James Haley, the No. 18 Washington and Lee men's lacrosse team upset third-ranked Lynchburg, 17-15, on Saturday evening to clinch the ODAC regular season title and top-seed for the conference tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- The Hornets (14-2, 9-1 ODAC) scored three of the game's first four goals, but the Generals (12-5, 9-1 ODAC) closed the first quarter by netting five of the next seven scores to pull in front, 6-5.
- Both teams scored twice in the second quarter, before the Blue and White scored the first three of the third quarter, two from Haley, to claim their largest lead of the game (11-7).
- Lynchburg responded with three consecutive scores of its own to get it back to a one goal game, and it remained close the rest of the way. Both teams split the next eight goals, before Finn Schmidt tied the game at 15 with 2:55 left, the first tie since the first quarter.
- On the ensuing face-off, sophomore Israel Mikkelson got the ball quickly in the hands of Haley, who found first-year Tucker Davis to regain the lead just 10 seconds after Lynchburg tied the score.
- First-years Garrett Ferguson and Luke Caldwell then teamed up for the final goal of the game with two minutes left, while senior Andrew Lehman came up with a clutch caused turnover in the final seconds to thwart any potential threat from the Hornets.
TOP PERFORMERS:
- Haley's six points came on four goals and two assists, with Caldwell tallying five points on two goals and three assists, to go along with three ground balls. Davis (2g, 2a) had four points and Ferguson added three goals.
- Mikkelson went 14-of-29 on face-offs and led the Generals with eight ground balls, and first-year Hunter Hodges wont 4-of-7 with three ground balls.
- Lehman and first-year Lawson Marshall both finished the day with two caused turnovers and three ground balls, with Marshall recording a goal for the second straight game. Senior Chris Datz and junior Spencer Surface also caused two turnovers.
- Riley Hastings paced the Hornets' offense with seven points on five goals and two assists, followed by Liam Holman with three goals and two assists.
- Riley Frankel was the Hornets' top face-off man with an 11-for-19 game at the X and five ground balls.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Haley continued his historic season for the Generals, as his first assist of the game made him just the eighth player in program history to reach 100 career assists. Now with 101 helpers in his career, he trails Hudson Hamill '20 by four for seventh.
- Haley also vaulted in front of ex-teammate Hillis Burns '25 (248) for third-most career points in program history and he can also pass Burns on the program's all-time goals list with two more.
- In 70 career games, Haley now has 252 points on 151 goals and 101 assists. He is one of just three players in program history with at least 150 goals and 100 assists.
TEAM STATS:
- The Generals finished the game with advantages in shots (44-36), shots on goal (26-21) and ground balls (33-26).
- Both teams were successful on all but one clear attempt each. W&L was good on 20-of-21 and Lynchburg went 17-for-18, while the Hornets turned the ball over five more times than W&L (17-12).
UP NEXT:
Now that the Generals own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Hornets, W&L earns the No. 1 seed for this year's ODAC Championship. They will begin their tournament run on Monday with a quarterfinal against Shenandoah at a time to be determined. The Generals won the regular season meeting against SU, 26-4, in Winchester on April 7.
