ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern St. Paul Men's Lacrosse team won their first Midwest Lacrosse Conference Tournament Championship in program history on Saturday night. The Eagles fought their way to a historic 17-4 victory over the Monmouth College Fighting Scots. With the win, UNW became the first university in the history of the state of Minnesota to ever qualify for the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse National Tournament.
UNW started out on fire right out the gate, imposing their will on both sides of the field. The offense opened the game with a run of 11 consecutive goals while the defense shut out the Fighting Scots for the entirety of the first half.
The Eagles controlled the game for the first 33 minutes, but then Monmouth found their footing and began to counter. In the fourth minute of the second half, the Fighting Scots scored to break UNW's shutout attempt. Northwestern responded with a
Keller Stephens (Lino Lakes, Minn./Mounds View) goal to retake their 10 goal lead, but then Monmouth rattled off three straight goals within 34 seconds.
To halt the Fighting Scot's momentum, Coach Sanders called a Northwestern timeout to settle and refocus his team. From then on, it was once again all UNW as the Eagles scored five more unanswered goals to close out the 17-4 title game victory.
Chase Marlenee (Northfield, Minn./Northfield) led the Northwestern offense with seven points on four goals and three assists along with a team-high six ground balls.
Noah Vander Kooi (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo) led the Eagles with six goals on the day.
Mat Anderson's (Little Canada, Minn./Roseville) four assists led UNW in the title game.
On defense,
Peyton LaMere (Holmen, Wis./Holmen) and
Alex Shamanovsky (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) each caused two turnovers and each recovered four ground balls.
Christoph Tisdale (Northfield, Minn./Northfield) earned the win in goal for UNW, notching 13 saves with a 76.5 save percentage.
Up next for Northwestern is the NCAA DIII National Tournament. The Eagles will find out who they play in the first round when the Selection Show airs on Sunday night, May 9, starting at 8pm CST.
