BRUNSWICK, Maine— Sophomore Ryan Sanders (Alamo, Calif.) and junior Erich Acton (Uxbridge, Ontario) combined for 11 goals and 10 assists and No. 10 RIT used a 7-0 third-quarter run to pull away and defeat No. 3 Babson College, 21-14, in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament quarterfinals Friday evening at Bowdoin College's Whittier Field.
With the outcome, RIT (18-4) captured its seventh straight victory and advances to the NCAA Tournament national semifinal on Saturday against No. 2 Bowdoin. Babson, which was playing in the quarterfinals for the first time in program history, sees its season come to a close with an 18-3 record.
Graduate student
Joey Allen (Philadelphia, Pa.) led the Beavers with six points on five goals and one assist while senior
Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) scored two goals and added two assists and classmate
Braden Reilly (Reading, Mass.) contributed a goal and three assists. Grad student
Patrick McAleavey (Trumbull, Conn.) chipped in with two goals and an assist, junior
Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) accounted for a goal and two assists and senior
Jack Feeks (Georgetown, Mass.) was good for a goal and an assist. Graduate student
Beau Burns (Washington, D.C.) won 18-of-34 face-offs and scooped up nine ground balls, and sophomore
Andrew Almquist (Wakefield, Mass.) made 14 saves in goal in the setback.
Sanders totaled four goals and seven assists, Acton supplied seven goals and three assists, and senior Ethan Hawkins (Oakville, Ont.) added three goals for the Tigers. Junior Ethan Spillane (Barrington, N.J.) won 16-of-29 face-offs and grabbed seven ground balls, senior Cole Teeple (Orangeville, Ont.) caused a pair of turnovers, and junior Joe Holenstein (San Diego, Calif.) collected five ground balls. Senior Alex Zborowski (Toronto, Ontario) made 11 saves in goal in the win.
After Acton and McAleavey traded early goals in the first quarter, RIT got a little momentum going with three straight goals by Acton in less than three minutes. The Beavers responded with four of the next five goals, as Allen and Rooney fired in back-to-back goals and Smith produced a pair himself to tie the game at 5-5 with four minutes to go in the first quarter.
RIT regained the lead with three goals in a row, one each by Bullock, Sanders and Acton to regain its three-goal margin early in the second quarter. Babson maintained composure and answered with three of its own, two from Allen and one from McAleavey in a minute and a half stretch to deadlock the score at 8-8 with 12 minutes remaining in the second frame.
Harkins continued the string of three-goal rallies with three in a row to put RIT back up 11-8. Babson sandwiched goals by junior
Andrew Berardi (Orleans, Mass.) and Allen around one by sophomore James Corry (Norwalk, Conn.) as the Beavers trailed by just two goals at the half, 12-10.
The third quarter belonged to the Tigers with the seven-goal surge. Acton put one in the back of the net in the opening minute and Sanders and Acton tallied goals 37 seconds apart in the ninth minute as the Tigers produced their largest lead to that point. They didn't stop there, as sophomore Ryan Langille (Port Perry, Ont.), Bullock and Sanders (twice) finished out the third quarter with goals as the RIT lead swelled to 19-10.
Babson scored four of the first five goals of the fourth quarter, one each by Allen, Reilly, junior
Ryan St. Onge (Avon, Conn.) and Feeks, but the deficit was too large to overcome for the Beavers.
GAME NOTES
• Babson is now 1-3 all-time against RIT in a series that dates back to 2023 as the Tigers avenged a 16-12 loss to the Beaver back on February 28 in Schenectady, N.Y.
• The Tigers have won all three NCAA Tournament games against Babson since 2023.
• The Green and White lost for the first time in 33 games since the start of last year when scoring at least 10 goals.
• The Beaver seniors finish their careers with a combined 61-18 record with four conference championships, four NCAA Tournament berths, and the first five NCAA Tournament victories in program history.
