#4/4 UAlbany Men's Lacrosse Upset by Hartford 11-10 in Overtime in America East Semifinals
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ALBANY, N.Y. – The #4/4 UAlbany men's lacrosse team fell to Hartford 11-10 in the America East semifinal round on Thursday night off a Justin Huggins sudden victory goal in overtime.
UAlbany (12-3), the 1-seed, led 10-8 against 4-seed Hartford (10-6) with four minutes left in the game. Hartford scored twice, including its equalizer with 28 seconds remaining in regulation. The Hawks grabbed the faceoff and won off Huggins' pass from Alec Brown with 2:32 left in the overtime period.
UAlbany outshot Hartford in the game 42-32, with Hartford winning 20 of 24 faceoffs.
“Certainly a disappointing night for us, give Hartford a lot of credit, they played outstanding,” said UAlbany coach Scott Marr. “They controlled the pace of play with winning the faceoffs, and we had to battle every possession just to get the ball back.”
With the defeat, UAlbany's streaks of 28 straight victories against America East opponents and three straight conference tournament titles comes to a close. Hartford will take on 3-seed Vermont in the America East title game on Saturday, May 7th at 10 a.m. at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium.
UAlbany will now hope for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will be on Sunday, May 8th at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
Connor Fields scored three goals and grabbed two ground balls for UAlbany. Justin Reh had two goals and a caused turnover while John Maloney had a goal and two assists. Blaze Riorden had 13 saves despite the defeat.
Huggins had a seven-point night off five goals and two assists while Brown had a goal and three assists. Dylan Protesto took all faceoffs for Hartford, winning 20-of-24 with 14 ground balls. Ryan Vanderford picked up the win in goal with 13 saves.
Hartford struck first in the opening quarter four minutes in as Huggins scored his first goal. After some back and forth play, Kyle McClancy came off a dodge and scored under the crossbar near side to tie it up. UAlbany drew a penalty, and after its own turnover, got the ball back off the ride as Jake Cullen passed off to Maloney for the score. Riorden saved a shot from Protesto off the faceoff as UAlbany held the ball for minutes, firing away. The third chance saw Reh come around the cage and fling the ball into the net with one arm for a two-goal lead. Hartford got two goals back in a span of a minute to tie it up at three after one.
UAlbany got possession back after Riorden saved a Dylan Jinks shot to send UAlbany to offense. Again Reh came from around the cage and shot from his waist and scored below the crossbar. UAlbany drew another flag, seeing Maloney laser a pass to Cullen next to the goal circle for the slam dunk score for a 5-3 UAlbany advantage. Hartford scored next chance, then each side traded the ball as turnovers saw five changes in possessions. Hartford tied the game with just under two minutes left to make it 5-5 by halftime.
Into the third, again the sides traded possessions until Huggins scored with 10:07 left in the quarter to give Hartford the lead. Off another quick strike, Fields scored from Maloney to tie it up, then scored again with a rocket past a defender and under the crossbar. UAlbany picked up a long possession with six shots, but could not connect as the third quarter expired with the Great Danes up 7-6.
A little more than one minute off a won faceoff, Huggins scored first again to tie the game at 7-7. Troy Reh won the next faceoff and UAlbany fired three times at the cage, with Eli Lasda scoring with 12 minutes left. On a shot clock warning, Conor Van Duzer scored for Hartford to tie the game again at 8-8. UAlbany again had a long possession with six shots as Vanderford saved three, picking up the final one.
UAlbany got the ball back off a Riorden save as Fields got around his man, shot low and scored inside the post. Off a won faceoff and a Hartford penalty, Sean Eccles buried the catch and shoot from Seth Oakes to give UAlbany a 10-8 lead. Hartford scored with 3:13 left to pull within one. Riorden saved a Van Duzer shot as UAlbany got a minute off the clock before losing possession. Getting a man-up chance, Brown scored from Huggins with 28 seconds left. Both sides had a possession in the final half-minute but did not score.
Protesto won his 20th faceoff as Hartford called a timeout. Huggins got the ball from Brown, turned around, jumped and shot, scoring inside the left post for the sudden victory goal.
In earlier action in the America East Tournament, 3-seed Vermont defeated 2-seed Stony Brook 10-9.
