DENVER – Despite a 5-0 run in the third quarter to take a 9-8 lead into the fourth, Albany's men’s lacrosse team fell to #2/2 Notre Dame 14-10 in the NCAA Quarterfinal at the Mile High Stadium in Denver, ending the Great Danes’ historic season.
Albany (16-3) finishes its season with 16 wins, the most in program history. UAlbany finished the year with 525 goals, 203 assists and 528 total points, all new Division I team records. The UAlbany seniors graduate as the winningest class in program history with 46 victories the past four years.
“I just have to say that I’m extremely proud of my program and how we conducted ourselves the whole year,” said UAlbany coach Scott Marr. “I’m so proud of my seniors and where they’ve taken our program from when they came in as freshmen.”
Down 8-4 going into the third, Albany shut out Notre Dame (12-2) in the third quarter with a 5-0 run to take a 9-8 lead into the fourth. The Fighting Irish scored the next six goals to take the lead for good.
“Hats off to Notre Dame. They were outstanding today,” said Marr. “They played very strong and physical and good luck to them moving forward.”
Notre Dame will advance to the semifinal round in Philadelphia, taking on the winner of Ohio State-Denver.
With an assist to Connor Fields 4:15 into the first quarter, Lyle Thompson became the Division I all-time assists leader. He finished with four assists today to total 225 in his career, adding a goal.
Thompson finishes the year with 121 points, the second-highest scoring season in DI history, only behind his own mark of 128 points in 2014. He ends his historic career with 400 points off 175 goals and 225 assists.
“It’s been fun. Coming in and having a not-so-good freshman year and building off of that with the team that we had and the seniors, I think we were the core of this whole group from the first America East Championship to the last,” said Thompson. “I think we were the core of the team and those guys are the work horses. Just being a part of the history of this program has meant a lot to me and I’m just proud to say I was part of it.”
Fields led all players with six goals on the day, totaling 66 on the season, 9th all-time in DI single season history and first among freshmen. It is the 2nd-highest total in UAlbany history behind Miles Thompson’s mark of 82 in 2014.
“When [Lyle Thompson] broke the points and assists record we were just playing our game out there and doing our normal game,” said Fields. “He felt no pressure with the records and it’s kind of cool to say that I was on the other end of the goal when he broke the record for points. Just to be playing with Lyle has been a dream come true.”
Seth Oakes scored a goal and an assist while Matt Garziano added a pair of assists. Blaze Riorden got the loss in goal despite 14 saves.
For Notre Dame, Sergio Perkovic netted four goals with an assist, while Conor Doyle finished with three goals, an assist and two caused turnovers. Shane Doss picked up the win in goal with 10 saves.
Albany trip to the quarterfinal round was their third in program history and the 11th all-time by an America East school.