ROCHESTER, N.Y. (May 10, 2024) – The Denison University men's lacrosse team but up a great fight and led 8-7 entering the fourth quarter, but in the end, the Big Red saw their 2024 season come to an end as they fell 12-10 to the No. 10 nationally-ranked Babson College during the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Tommy Quinson scored the first goal of the game three minutes in, but a penalty on a push on the next possession gave Babson a man-up opportunity and allowed the Beavers to tie it.
Less than a minute later, the Denison defense was unable to pick up the groundball on a save by Andrew Albert, leading to a goal on a second-chance opportunity by Babson to make it 2-1 in the first five minutes of the game.
Senior Luke Fisher put a nice spin on his defender coming from behind the goal and got onto the scoreboard to tie it at 2-2 with five and a half minutes left in the opening period.
Fisher shot again and hit the post just over a minute later, and the groundball went out to Nate Kay, whose shot was saved by Alex Fascilla. With just two minutes left in the first quarter, a pass from Colin Donegan inside to Fisher looked to be stopped by Fascilla, but instead, the ball rolled off his stick and into the goal, giving Denison's its second lead of the period.
Denison led 3-2 after the first quarter and outshot Babson 12-9 in the period while Albert made five saves and the Big Red defense had four caused turnovers on five Beaver giveaways.
Colin MacLean won the opening faceoff of the second quarter, and Denison took the first two-goal lead of the game as Fisher created some space around his defender but then passed it over to Michael Cassidy, who fired the shot in past Fascilla to make it 4-2 Big Red.
Babson came back to tie it with seven minutes left before halftime, but Denison would not be deterred as Quinson went shoulder-to-shoulder against his defender before finding Nick Vance for a goal to make it 5-4 Big Red with just under five minutes remaining in the second quarter.
Denison was able to get its first penalty kill of the game with under three minutes left in the quarter, and then after a one-minute unnecessary roughness penalty with 2:18 on the clock, the Big Red were again able to kill the penalty after a save by Albert. Babson entered the day ranking third in Division III in man-up offense, scoring on 54.9 percent of its chances this season, and was 22-of-33 for a 66.7 percent conversion rate over the last 11 games.
Albert added six more saves to his total in the second quarter after the Big Red were outshot 13-9 overall and 8-5 on goal in the period. In all for the first half, it was just a one shot advantage (22-21) for Babson.
Babson scored the first two goals of the third quarter until Quinson tied it at 6-6 with 8:36 left in the period, and then after a failed clear attempt by the Beavers, Vance took advantage of a substitution by Babson as the defense lost track of him and allowed Vance to run in and get off a clean look at the goal to make it 7-6 Big Red with 7:14 on the clock.
Just 70 seconds later, Quinson scored his third goal of the game to give Denison's its second-two goal lead (8-6) of the contest.
Denison's 3-0 run was stopped by a goal by Babson with 5:14 left in the third quarter, and then the Big Red defense was able to withstand a wild final 15 seconds of the quarter that saw a one-minute unnecessary roughness penalty on both teams that forced Denison to go to its backup goalie, Brant Satterly, for about six seconds.
The final play of the third quarter was a shot by the Beavers that hit the post, and in the end, the Big Red were able to take an 8-7 lead into the final period.
Back-to-back goals by Babson just 55 seconds apart gave the Beavers the lead back with 11:48 left to play, and then Babson made it a 3-0 start to the fourth quarter as another goal made it a 10-8 Beavers' lead with 10:41 on the clock.
After giving the Beavers the go-ahead goal earlier in the quarter, Camden Matthews hit the post but got the groundball that came right back to him and scored easily to make it 11-8 Babson with eight and a half minutes remaining.
Fisher found Vance with 6:37 left to finally stop the run of five straight goals by Babson, which had 12 of the first 15 shots of the final period.
Denison pulled to within two again with a man-up goal by Quinson assisted by Vance with three and a half minutes left, but in the end, Babson was too strong offensively. The Beavers came into the game ranking 18th in Division III in scoring offense (16.06) and 23rd in scoring defense (8.67).
Babson outshot Denison 16-8 in the fourth quarter and won 7-of-8 faceoffs while scooping up 15-of-19 available groundballs in the final period.
For the game, Babson led 51-40 in shots, 31-24 on shots on goal, 52-36 in groundballs and 20-6 in faceoff wins. Babson was ranked 32nd nationally in faceoff winning percentage (.613), which was just one spot better than Denison, which had won 61.2 percent of its faceoffs entering the NCAA Tournament.
Individually for Denison, Quinson scored four goals and finished with five points while Vance added three goals and four points.
Fisher finished with two goals and one assist in his final game with the Big Red.
Four of Denison's 12 caused turnovers as a team came from Brooks Crowley, who also added eight groundballs.
Albert would finish with a career-high 19 saves and had a .613 save percentage.
No. 10 USILA/No. 11 USA Lacrosse Babson improved to 16-3 with its fifth consecutive win while RV USILA/No. 19 USA Lacrosse Denison saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end.
The Big Red finished their third season under Head Coach Eric Koch with a 14-6 overall record, and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in all three seasons. Denison also finished the season 0-5 against nationally-ranked opponents, including a 22-8 home loss to RIT in its season opener and three straight setbacks to Washington & Lee, Lynchburg and Gettysburg, all of which were ranked 13th when they played back in early March.
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