Charlotte, N.C. – The No. 16 Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Lacrosse Team (12-4) held off Queens (11-7), 10-9, to win the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship Saturday afternoon at the Royals Athletic Complex.

The top-seeded Bears, the league regular season champions and winners of 11 straight games, won their first-ever conference tournament championship.  The Royals were seeded third in this year's league tournament. 

Three Lenoir-Rhyne players – senior midfielder Carson Sterling (Durham, N.C.), junior attacker Will Remsen (Baldwin, N.Y.) and senior attacker Taylor Thilo (Greensboro, N.C.) – all scored three times while Sterling was named tournament most valuable player in the win.

Queens, ranked No. 20 in NCAA Division II, was led by Nick Carlson (Lusby, Md.) with three goals but the Royals couldn't overcome an 8-3 deficit midway through the third period.

Lenoir-Rhyne junior attacker Mike Hanlon (Haymarket, Va.), the Bears' leading scorer with 62 points, dished out four assists as the Bears were able to hold on after Queens scored twice in the final 90 seconds of the game.  Lenoir-Rhyne never trailed in the contest in beating Queens by one goal for the second time on the road this year.

The Bears held the edge in shots taken (43-42) while both goalkeepers – Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Crompton (Frederick, Md.) and Queens' Eric Dolan (Hopkinton, Mass.) – had 11 saves on the day.

2016 South Atlantic Conference Men's Lacrosse
Championship All-Tournament Team

Nate Wade - Tusculum
Robert Godwin - Wingate
Eric Dolan - Queens
Garrett Sadler - Queens
Jonathan Paige - Queens
Taylor Thilo - Lenoir-Rhyne
Ryan Crompton - Lenoir-Rhyne
Matt Harrison - Lenoir-Rhyne
Mike Hanlon - Lenoir-Rhyne
Carson Sterling - Lenoir-Rhyne (Tournament MVP)