america east mlax tournament MLAX - Game 15 America East Tournament Semi-Final May 4 (Thu) 4:00 PM Burlington, VT Virtue Field

[cwdickens]

Tonight's other semifinal game Bryant leads Binghamton 9-6 at the half

[UAalum72]

1 hour ago, nysteve661 said:

Your welcome gents.  Instead of watching the game and have them lose as they do when I watch, I played golf.  

Me too. Kind of broke my golf concentration checking LiveStats before every shot on the 17th and 18th fairways.

[cwdickens]

The winner of the 2nd semi-final is Bryant 12-11, so #2 Bryant vs #4 UAlbany.

[cwdickens]

The Inside Lacrosse take on today's match:

UAlbany is Back: Danes Topple Vermont to Get Back to America East Championship | Inside Lacrosse

[cwdickens]

From today's Times-Union:

UALBANY 10, VERMONT 4

 

Heller, Danes stun Vermont

Goalie excels with 19 saves as UAlbany snaps 8-game skid vs. Catamounts

 

By Mark Singelais

Bolstered by a superb effort from senior goalkeeper Tommy Heller, the University at Albany men’s lacrosse program ended its recent frustration against Vermont and advanced to the America East Conference championship game.

Heller made 19 saves, one shy of the tournament record, and freshman attack Silas Richmond scored five goals as the fourth-seeded Great Danes stifled the two-time defending champion Catamounts 10-4 in a semifinal on Thursday at Virtue Field in Burlington, Vt.

UAlbany (6-9) moved on to the title game at 1 p.m. Saturday in Burlington against either No. 2 Bryant or No. 3 Binghamton, who met in Thursday’s later semifinal. The Great Danes are going for their first America East title since 2018 and 10th overall.

The Great Danes snapped an eight-game losing streak against No. 1 seed Vermont (9-5), which included season-ending losses in the last three America East Tournaments. When they met this regular season, the Catamounts defeated UAlbany 14-7 in Burlington on March 25.

“There’s no question this was a huge win for our program,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. “I was really happy that we were the ones who beat them and it wasn’t Bryant or Binghamton or anybody else. It felt good for us to be the ones who beat the defending champions. It was really satisfying. Just that monkey off your back type thing.”

On Thursday, Richmond scored on a Jack Pucci assist to give the Great Danes the lead for good at 5-4 with 4:27 left in the first half. That was the halftime score and UAlbany shut out Vermont in the second half.

The Catamounts were repeatedly denied by Heller, who appeared in only his fifth game of the season. He made 12 saves in the second half and finished one save shy of the tournament record set by UAlbany’s Kevin Rae, who had 20 against Quinnipiac in 2002.

Marr went with Heller over junior Jack VanValkenburgh.

“(Heller) has been playing really well in practice these past two weeks,” Marr said. “Jack, unfortunately, struggled a little bit in our last couple of games. It was just one of those gut kind of feelings. Tommy has worked hard and stayed in it since he was taken out. He started earlier in the year. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit for hanging in there and staying focused ... He played unbelievable.”

To start the second half, UAlbany’s Nick Karnes won the faceoff to himself and fed Richmond, who beat Vermont goalie George Egan with a shot from the left side to make it 6-4 just seven seconds into the quarter.

The score remained that way until UAlbany freshman attack Ben Wimmer tallied a man-up goal for a 7-4 advantage with 13:17 left in the fourth period.

Wimmer, freshman midfielder Alex Pfeiffer and graduate midfielder Declan Palandjian each scored in a stretch of 1 minute, 50 seconds late in the fourth quarter to account for the final score.

“I think we were really dialed in with what our gameplan was,” Marr said. “We’ve been talking all year about putting together four quarters, and we finally did.”

▶› msingelais@- timesunion.com A 518-454-5509 A @MarkSingelais

[PrisonMike]

Outstanding individual performance by Heller, he was the difference in this game. There's one long pole in particular that is overly aggressive with his slides and slides to the SSDM when they're not even close to being beat. It ends up creating offense for opposing teams, but luckily Heller stood on his head in goal. 

 

[B9j2j6s]

Captain obvious says "this season is a success if you win tomorrow."  Go get it Danes.

[dslyank]

Not to look past tomorrow, with this team another GREAT game is possible or ??

But for those of you surprised about yesterday 😉, let me note a couple things. From "inside lacrosse":  The Danes had at least six players in plain clothes on the sidelines who would have put up significant gameday minutes. Graydon Hogg and Elijah Gash were injured..; 8 of 10 goals scored by freshman yesterday; and except for 2 clunkers [SU & first VT game], UA was IN every game.

Piseno & Hogg most likely coming back and do not forget Camden Hay [who when healthy can be an absolute beast {missed all of this year and was never totally healthy his first two years}.] This freshman class and last years sophomore's will be more experienced and road tested. IMHO the Train is indeed back or at least rounding the bend.

Hopefully tomorrow UA continues the RIDE!

Edited May 5, 2023 by dslyank