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UD mens lacrosse team earns CAA tourney berth
The Fightin Blue Hens, who improved to 9-5 overall and 2-3 in the conference, will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed. They will travel to No. 2 seed Villanova for a semifinal game on Wednesday, May 5. Regular season champion Towson University, the top seed, will host No. 4 seed Hofstra in the other semifinal game. The CAA title game will be played Saturday, May 8, at the home field of the highest remaining seed. The conference champion will gain a berth in the NCAA tournament field. This is UDs third season in the CAA and the first time it has reached the conference championship tournament. Before entering tournament play, UD will face the nationally ranked University of Denver in the regular season finale at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 1, at Rullo Stadium. In Saturdays victory over Sacred Heart, the Hens were led by junior attack Andy Hipple, who scored four goals, and senior attack Matt Alrich, who scored two goals. Hipple opened the scoring at the 11:06 mark to give UD a 1-0 lead, but Sacred Heart reeled off three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period. UD answered, scoring the only four goals of the second quarter and the first two goals of the third quarter to build a 7-3 lead. Hipple scored at 13:55 of the second quarter and 14:07 of the third to spark the run. Also scoring were junior Joe Trentzsch, Alrich, freshman Alex Smith and junior Bob Meunier. Sacred Heart cut the lead to 7-5 before UD went on another run, getting goals from Hipple, sophomore Kurt Norfhoff and senior Ryan Metzbower to extend the lead to 10-5. After a Sacred Heart goal, UD freshmen Cam Howard and Jordan Hall scored and Alrich added a goal to make it 13-6 with 6:20 to play. UD senior goalkeeper Chris Collins stopped 11 shots as he earned his ninth win of the season. To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |