Lehigh squares off against No. 6/8 Loyola in Patriot League Championship Game Sunday

Sunday, April 29

Baltimore, Md.

12 p.m.

Lehigh University

Loyola (Championship Game)

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Lehigh squares off against No. 6/8 Loyola in Patriot League Championship Game Sunday

4/28/2018 1:30:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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BALTIMORE - For the fourth time in the last seven years and first time since 2014, the Lehigh men's lacrosse team will play for a Patriot League Title when it faces top-seeded and No. 6/8 ranked Loyola on Sunday afternoon. Opening faceoff is set for 12 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. The fourth-seeded Mountain Hawks are coming off a thrilling 10-9 overtime victory against No. 11/13 Navy Friday night, as Lehigh's first overtime win since February of 2014 couldn't have come at a bigger time. Lehigh will be vying for its third league title in the last seven years after winning Patriot League Championships in 2012 and 2013.

Junior Lucas Spence was the hero on Friday, posting game highs in goals (4) and points (5), none bigger than the unassisted game-winner just 42 seconds into overtime. It marked Lehigh's second overtime game of the year (also at North Carolina in February). Prior to Friday, the last time Lehigh won in overtime was Feb. 16, 2014 when it defeated Villanova in triple overtime, 7-6. With Friday's win, the Mountain Hawks improved to 10-6 on the season, their fourth time with double-figure wins in the last seven years (also 2012, 2013 and 2014). Prior to 2012, Lehigh had just four seasons with double-digit wins in the first 112 years of program history (1969, 1993, 1994 and 1997). Friday also marked Lehigh's third win against a nationally-ranked opponent this season, most since 2014.

The 2018 Patriot League Tournament has played out similarly to the last time Lehigh made it this far, 2014. This year, the Mountain Hawks defeated Colgate in the quarterfinals (11-3) and Navy in the semifinals (10-9 in overtime). In 2014, Lehigh beat Navy in the quarterfinals (10-6) and Army in the semifinals (12-11). That semifinal win was a thriller as well, with Reid Weber scoring the game-winner with just 3.7 seconds remaining in regulation.

Navy got off to a fast start on Friday, taking a 2-0 lead just 2:15 into the game. However, the Lehigh defense bore down the rest of the way. The Mountain Hawks held the Midshipmen scoreless for a stretch of 23:04 bridging the end of the first quarter through beginning of the third. Lehigh's offense scored four unanswered goals in that span to take a 6-4 lead. Navy did have a surge of four goals in the span of 7:57 in the third, but the Mountain Hawks allowed just one goal over the game's final 19:22 to pull out the thrilling victory.

Spence's game-winning goal marked the 50th of his career as he has come on strong down the stretch to increase his season point total to 56 (34 goals, 22 assists). He has recorded multiple points in every game this season, with Friday marking his fourth game with 5+ points. Along with Spence's five points, junior Andrew Pettit recorded a hat trick while classmate Mickey Fitzpatrick had a goal and assist. Juniors scored nine of Lehigh's 10 goals while juniors Craig Chick and Eddie Bouhall combined for all five of the Mountain Hawks' caused turnovers. For Chick, he reached 116 career caused turnovers to move into eighth place in NCAA history in that category. He's up to 39 on the season, needing one to tie and two to break his own school record (40) set last season.

Sophomore Conor Gaffney was sensational down the stretch Friday, winning the final five faceoffs of the game to help Lehigh erase an 8-7 deficit after three quarters of play and score three of the game's final four goals. Gaffney finished 12-of-23 for the day, the second time this season he has won more than 50 percent against Navy's Joe Varello, who was named Patriot League Faceoff Specialist of the Year. Gaffney and Varello tied for first team All-League, but Varello was awarded the major award due to more first place votes. Counting Gaffney's 13-of-21 effort in the regular season, he finished the year 25-of-44 (57 percent) against Varello.

Freshman James Spence also made critical saves. He finished with eight stops for the game, but stopped 3-of-4 sent his way in the fourth quarter with the only goal he allowed being a doorstep finish. Classmate Teddy Leggett had one of the biggest plays of the game, collecting a groundball on a scramble following the opening faceoff of the overtime period, setting the stage for Lucas Spence's heroics.

Lehigh avenged a regular-season loss to Navy. The Mountain Hawks will look to avenge another loss on Sunday when they face Loyola, just 22 days after the Greyhounds defeated Lehigh 16-10.

Loyola has won six straight games since a 12-11 home defeat to Bucknell on Mar. 24. Most recently, the Greyhounds defeated Boston University in the semifinals Friday, 13-8 while beating Army West Point 12-8 in the regular season finale. Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year Pat Spencer leads the offense in assists (51) and points (81). He is already the league's all-time leader in career points, and he's only a junior. Jay Drapeau owns a team-leading 35 goals, to go with nine assists, while Aidan Olmstead has 35 points (19 goals, 16 assists) and Kevin Lindley owns 34 (30 goals, four assists). Foster Huggins, the league' Defensive Player of the Year owns 47 caused turnovers to lead the nation while goaltender Jacob Stover has a 8.37 goals against average and 0.521 save percentage. Bailey Savio has taken most of the faceoffs, winning 45.9 percent of his draws (90-of-196). Mike Orefice has won 39.7 percent (62-of-156).

Loyola leads the all-time series, 13-0, which includes a 6-0 mark since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League. The teams met in league play in 2014, playing for the first time since 1998. Five of the six games since 2014 have come in the regular season with Loyola also beating the Mountain Hawks in the 2014 championship game. The closest call came in 2016 when Lehigh dropped a slim 11-10 final to the Greyhounds. The first-ever meeting between the two sides was in 1942, a 12-1 Loyola win.

With a win, the Mountain Hawks would earn the Patriot League's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. It would mark Lehigh's third NCAA berth in the last seven years (also 2012 and 2013).

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