HICKORY, N.C. -- The No. 6 Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Lacrosse Team beings their quest to defend the SAC Tournament Title as they take on Newberry in the SAC Semifinals on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Matthews SportsPlex. The Bears, who earned the No. 2 seed, had a bye past the Quarterfinal round and will take on Newberry who defeated Lincoln Memorial in the Quarters. LR has won four straight SAC Tournament games with championships in 2021 and 2022.
This will be just the second meeting between LR and Newberry in the SAC Tournament with the prior matchup coming in the Quarterfinals of 2019 where the Bears handled the Wolves to the tune of a 15-6 victory. It will also be the second meeting of 2023 for LR and Newberry and the first was a one-sided LR victory. On March 15, the Bears went to Setzler Field and overpowered Newberry 18-6 on the strength of six points from
Evan Voss. In the win, LR had four players with at least four points and a high-powered Newberry offense to a season-low six goals. In fact, Newberry hasn't scored less than 11 in a game this year other than the LR contest.
The Bears are flying high heading into Saturday night with a 13-2 mark and wins in five straight games. LR is set to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history and the third straight year as they came into the week ranked No. 5 in the South Regional rankings with the top six moving to NCAA play. However, the Bears will be looking to move up in the rankings with a strong showing in the conference tournament as the three and four seeds host a First Round NCAA Tournament game and the one and two seeds earn a bye. The Bears are led by a high-octane offense and a shut down defense.
Toron Eccleston earned First Team All-Conference honors and leads the Bears with a career-high 66 points and 46 goals. Second Team All-League attackmen
Myles Moffat is second on LR with 63 points and his 28 assists leads the Bears. Moffat became the program's all-time leader in assists against Florida Tech in March and ranks second in team history in career points.
Riley Seay, another of LR's program record 11 All-Conference selections, is third with 28 goals and 40 points as First Team All-League midfielder in his first year after transferring in from Loyola.
Defensively,
Victor Powell earned a spot on the First Team All-Conference and is one of four defenders to be named to the All-SAC team. Fellow defenders
Nate Ashley (Second Team) and
Joey Masson (Third Team) along with
Colten McCracken who was selected as a First Team All-SAC short stick midfielder, lead a defense that ranks as the best in the SAC in goals per game. The stingy LR defense allows opponents to score just 7.67 goals per game, a figure that ranks fourth out of 74 Division II programs.
LR's contests haven't been particularly close all year. The Bears scoring margin of +9.47 is the number one figure in all of Division II lacrosse and all but one of LR's wins this year have come by at least nine goals.
The Bears can close in on the program's assist record as LR sits at 158 helpers on the year. In 2021, LR dished out 175 assists which stands as a program best. The Bears rank sixth in the nation in total assists and fifth in DII in assists per game.
The Wolves check in at No. 17 in the USILA national poll and eighth in the all-important regional poll. Newberry comes in to tonight's contest averaging 15.5 goals per game which puts them just outside the top 10 at 13th nationally. The Wolves feature the nation's best man-up offense, converting at a 57.4 percent clip and Scott Reed leads the nation with 12 man-up goals. Baker Westmoreland is the top Newberry player, evidenced by his First Team All-Conference selection at midfield. The Wolves placed four on the Second Team, including goalie Ryan Erler, and three more on the Third Team.
The winner of this Semifinal contest will take on the winner of Wingate/Limestone in the Championship game which is scheduled for Monday at 5 p.m.
