By Jessyca Tingue | April 29, 2024
The University at Albany men’s lacrosse team beat the Binghamton Bearcats 18-10 under the lights at Casey Stadium on Senior Night. With Saturday’s win, the Great Danes are the No. 1 seed, and will host the America East Conference Championships.
Daniel Kesselring #7, scored two goals during Saturday’s victory.
Photo Credit: UAlbany Athletics
“I’m thrilled for this group,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. “Long week, a lot of challenges. Really thought we’ve been a tight team all season, but I think this week has made us even tighter. [I was] just impressed with our resilience early in the game... Overall, really proud of our group for how they handled themselves this week and throughout the year. Excited to have the tournament at home for the first time since 2018.”
After shaking off some nerves in the first quarter, UAlbany found another gear. The Great Danes took 47 shots, forced 15 turnovers, three of which came from shot-clock violations, and faceoff specialist Regan Enders dominated the faceoff battle, winning 17 of 31 faceoffs.
In the first quarter, it was an offensive tug-of-war between both teams. Binghamton went out to a quick 3-1 lead, but UAlbany quickly answered back and a goal from sophomore attackmen Ben Wimmer with six seconds left tied the game 4-4 to end the quarter. The Great Danes carried that offensive momentum into the second quarter. Graduate student Graydon Hogg led the offensive run, scoring four of the six goals in the quarter, putting UAlbany up 10-7 at halftime.
In the second half, it was all UAlbany. The Great Danes continued to explode offensively as they outscored the Bearcats 8-3. The defense came up big as well throughout the second half and throughout the game. UAlbany gave up only 3 goals in the second half, forced three shot clock violations through the game, and denied Binghamton the chance to score on three man-up opportunities.
“We were just playing together,” freshman attackman Ryan Doherty said, speaking on the Great Danes second half run. “There was no friction or anything. Everyone was just playing together, playing and having fun. That was a big thing and just enjoying it, I think that we just really stepped up our game.”
Hogg came up big for the Great Danes and led the team with 5 goals, tying his career best. Doherty also played a strong game, scoring four goals. Wimmer and Daniel Kesselring each scored two goals. In total, the Great Danes had nine different goal scorers. Goalkeeper Landon Whitney recorded 11 saves, and senior goalkeeper Jack VanValkenburgh had two saves in his final regular season game.
Between the monumental occasion of clinching the regular season title and celebrating the senior class, Hogg and Doherty reflected on the team’s effort up to this point in the season.
“I don't even know, man,” Hogg said as he described the emotion behind his final regular season game of his career. “It's taken us four years now, five years now, so just to end it off and have a regular season championship and be able to bring it home, it's pretty awesome. [We] get to play the tournament at home and just pumped and ready for next week.”
“I think it's something that we've been building all year for and everyone in the locker room knew that we could get to this point,” Doherty said after the game. “It was just a matter of belief, and everyone believed. It's really something special when we go out there and give it our all and really play with each other. It's something that we talk about each year, we wanted to have it here, and we got to that goal and we're just going to move to our next goal.”
The Great Danes now look toward the America East conference playoffs starting Thursday at home. They will have their semifinal matchup against the No.4 seed Merrimack. Despite the occasion, the Great Danes beat Merrimack 14-8 on April 21, and Marr is confident in his team’s ability to stay focused on what they can control.
“Again, we've talked [about this] all year. It's not about who we're playing, it's just about who's in our locker room and what we are doing,” Marr said. “We don't worry about the other team or the other coach or anybody else on the other sideline. We worry about what we're doing as a team. Again, moving forward with this group here, the confidence is there. It's just about us going out and executing. If we execute at both ends of the field with Regan [Enders] playing well at face off X, and Landon [Whitney] playing well on the goal, like I said, I like how we can hopefully move through this on Thursday and make it to Saturday.”