MLX: Lasell falls to #6 York in NCAA playoffs

LANCASTER, Pa. – The Lasell University men's lacrosse team put up a valiant effort in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament on Saturday, but in the end, it was #6-ranked York College of Pennsylvania that prevailed over the Lasers, 21-6, at Franklin & Marshall College's Shadek Stadium.

The Spartans improve to 15-1 overall and advance to a second-round contest on Sunday at 2 p.m. against either Franklin & Marshall or John Carroll University, who meet in Saturday's second first-round matchup. Lasell had its seven-game winning streak snapped and completes the season with a 10-3 overall record.

Senior Andrew Fidalgo (Wilbraham, Mass.) led the Lasers with three goals in the game, while grad student Chase Kapuscienski (Grafton, Mass.) and junior James Anderson (Medway, Mass.) notched a goal and an assist each. Junior Max Litchfield (Barrington, N.H.) added one goal and classmate Bash Cunningham (Norwalk, Conn.) contributed one assist.

Lasell junior Alex Beauchemin (Westfield, Mass.) had a busy and impressive afternoon in goal, making a career-high 21 saves as York outshot the Lasers, 64-25.

Sophomore Will Harnick (Gibsonia, Pa.) led the Spartans with five goals and senior Brendan Sullivan (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) tallied three goals and one assist. York, which ranks 17th in NCAA Division III in scoring, got at least one goal from 12 different players and at least two goals from five different players.

York had the advantage over Lasell in ground balls (44-27) and had a dominant performance on face-offs, winning 24-of-30.

After the Spartans took an early 2-0 lead, Fidalgo put the Lasers on the board, with an assist from Cunningham, less than five minutes into the game. York then erupted for seven unanswered goals over a seven-and-a-half-minute span, including two by O'Sullivan, to pull ahead 9-1. A Lasell goal by Anderson, set up by Kapuscienski, made it a 9-2 game after one quarter.

Harnick scored the first goal of the second quarter for York, but Lasell answered with back-to-back goals by Litchfield and Fidalgo to get a little momentum going. But the Spartans responded with four straight goals while shutting down the Lasers for the rest of the quarter to take a 14-4 lead at the half.

Kapuscienski and Fidalgo scored consecutive goals for Lasell in the third quarter to pull the Lasers to within 15-6, but that would end up being the last of the Laser offense and York added six more goals the rest of the way to secure the victory.

Lasell, which captured the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship a week ago, was making its second NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since falling to Misericordia University in the first round in 2017.

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