CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Graduate student Ryan Gebhart (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) scored a pair of fourth-quarter goals and No. 14 USILA/No. 19 Inside Lacrosse MIT overcame a 21-save performance by senior Mac Mowat (Bellevue, Wash.) to edge visiting Babson College, 12-10, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal on Wednesday night at Steinbrenner Stadium.

Babson, which captured the first NEWMAC Tournament championship in program history last spring, sees its season come to a close at 8-9. One of just three remaining unbeatens in Division III, MIT improves to 15-0 and advances to the conference final for the first time in school history.

First-year Colt Bordonaro (Portland, Ore.) finished with two goals and one assist and juniors Chi Chi Price (Hingham, Mass.) and Matt Stucchi (Rexford, N.Y.) contributed two goals apiece to lead the Beavers' offense. First-year Jared Lucich (Point Pleasant, N.J.) won 8-of-15 face-offs and sophomore Brendan Maher (Melrose, Mass.) recorded three ground balls and two caused turnovers in front of Mowat, who set a new season high for saves in the loss.

Gebhart led all players with four goals, sophomore Heath Nilsen (Carlsbad, Calif.) scored three times and senior Gavin Vandenberg (Elmhurst, N.Y.) dished out a game-high five assists for the Engineers. First-year Matthew Sardis (Bernardsville, N.J.) won 14-of-26 face-offs and scooped up 10 ground balls, while senior Lukas Drexler-Bruce (Denver, Colo.) registered seven saves in the win.

Tied at 1-1 nearly nine minutes into the contest, the hosts used a four-goal run that included back-to-back tallies by Gebhart less than a minute apart to take its biggest lead of the game at 5-1 with 2:07 to go in the opening stanza. Bordonaro answered with his first goal of the night 30 seconds later and the Green and White dominated the second quarter getting markers from Stucchi, graduate student Lee Sipes (Windham, N.H.) and sophomore Sammy Kalishman (Clarksville, Md.) to pull even at 5-5 less than two minutes before halftime.

Price capped the five-goal run and gave Babson its first lead with 12:54 to go in the third before Nilsen and first-year Dylan Nelson (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) struck for back-to-back goals to put MIT back in front 7-6 with 7:59 remaining in the period. Sophomore Robert Wilson (Paoli, Pa.) tied it up and first-year Emmett Martin (Milton, Mass.) gave the Beavers their final lead of the night at 8-7, but Nelson scored again with 1:07 left in the frame and Gebhart followed with his third tally of the game 11 seconds into the fourth quarter to give the Engineers a 9-8 advantage.

Bordonaro tied the game just over four minutes later, but Gebhart scored at the 8:51 mark and Sardis set up Nilsen's tally eight seconds later to give the hosts an 11-9 edge with 8:43 to go in the contest. Mowat made back-to-back saves before senior Andy Shin (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) scored to push the margin back to two with 3:24 left and the Engineers ran out the final 64 seconds following a Babson turnover.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 30-16 all-time against MIT and Wednesday's loss was the first for the Beavers against the Engineers in four postseason meetings.
• Each of the Beavers' last three NEWMAC Tournament losses have come by two goals or fewer going back to 2018.
• Mowat's 21 saves are the second highest total of his career behind only the 29-save effort in a loss to then-No. 1 Tufts in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
• Babson, which got outshot 26-5 in the opening quarter on Wednesday, held MIT to its lowest goal total of the season in the loss.
• Stucchi recorded at least one point in his 17th straight game on Wednesday.