HOLLAND, MICH.-- The Trine men's lacrosse team was defeated by Hope, 14-11, in the final game of the regular-season Saturday afternoon at Van Andel Stadium.
The loss dropped Trine into a three-way tie with Hope and Olivet for third-place in the MIAA. The tiebreaker for the MIAA Tournament is determined by goal differential in games played between the three teams. With the worst goal differential (-2), the Flying Dutchmen were eliminated from tournament contention. Trine gets the three-seed by virtue of their 10-7 victory over the Comets during the regular-season. Chris Ward (Oak Lawn, Ill./St. Rita) scored a season-high five goals to lead the Trine attack. Gunnar Elder scored four goals and notched two assists to lead the Flying Dutchmen. The Thunder conclude regular-season play 4-11 overall. Hope finishes the season 6-7.
Patrick Walker (Round Lake Park, Ill./Grayslake North) notched a three-point game on a goal and two assists for Trine. George Youpel (Chicago Ridge, Ill./St. Rita) and Andrew Walters (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) each added a pair of goals. Rob Brzezinski (Livonia, Mich./Detroit Catholic Central) scored a goal and notched a game-high nine ground balls.
Caleb Digison scored two goals and added three assists, while Nika Pagkanlungan notched three goals and added two assists for five-point efforts for Hope. Parker Osterink added three goals for the Dutch.
Hope got off to a quick 5-2 start after the first quarter that Trine was never able to fully recover from. Elder scored two goals in the opening quarter to lead the way. The two teams played to a 2-2 stalemate in the second to make the halftime score 7-4 in favor of the Dutch.
The third quarter featured an offensive explosion from both sides as the two teams combined for nine goals. Ward scored four of his goals in the third quarter, the last of which was a man-up tally that pulled Trine within 11-9 with 10 seconds left in the quarter.
That was as close as the Thunder got however, as the Dutch led by as many as four goals in the final quarter. Youpel's final goal with 3:56 to play accounted for the final tally of the contest. That goal proved to be huge- if Trine had lost to Hope by four goals, the Dutch would have earned the final spot in the MIAA Tournament over the Thunder.
Trine will face the no. 2 seed Albion in the MIAA Tournament semifinals on Thursday, May 1. Game time has yet to be announced. The Britons finished 11-4 overall, 5-1 in league play and defeated Trine 20-3 earlier this season.