SALT LAKE CITY, Utah— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team will have to settle for a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title after the Westminster College Griffins snapped the Mavs' nearly 3-year old, 12-game conference regular season winning streak by a 13-10 margin on Saturday at the Griffins' Dumke Field.
Saturday's defeat also snapped the Mavs' 7-game overall winning streak from this season and cost them a chance at hosting next week's RMAC Tournament.
The now 9-3 Griffins will now have that honor by virtue of the conference's fourth tie-breaker— goals scored in conference play.
Both teams finished the regular season with 5-1 conference records after splitting the season series.
The Mavericks (12-4) had won their home portion of the series by a 16-13 margin on Feb. 27 and needed a Saturday win to claim an outright RMAC title. The Mavs would have also earned the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for the RMAC Tournament with a one or two goal margin of defeat.
Because the teams split the two games and the combined goal differential in the two contests was equal, the tie-breaking procedures then moved to goal differential in conference games with a maximum of a 6-goal margin for any particular game.
That comparison was also level.
The Griffins then won the tie-breaker at the fourth level as they scored 101 goals in their six conference games, four more than the Mavericks.
In Saturday's contest, the Mavericks were credited with 24 of the 27 face-off wins and out-shot the Griffins, 53-40.
Dylan Checketts,
Carson Schwark and
James Steinke were all credited with two goals while
Drew Eickelman,
Jed Brummett, JJ Brummet and
Hunter Holcomb were all credited with a goal as well pending a later review of the current post-game statistics, which did not include any assists for CMU players and just seven ground balls.
The Griffins used a 6-0 run to take a 7-2 lead with 8:40 left in the second quarter. The hosts then scored the first four goals of the third quarter to build a 12-4 lead before the Mavs rallied with five straight goals, including three in a span of just 49 seconds with over 11 minutes left, to close to within 12-9.
However, the Griffins' Andoni Ondencrantz scored his third goal of the game with 3:57 left to re-institute a 4-goal cushion. Holcomb then scored in the final minute to complete the scoring before substitute goal keeper Jacob Miller made a save in the waning seconds to assure his team the ability to stay at home for the RMAC Tournament with the 3-goal margin of victory.
The RMAC will announce more tournament details, including the exact location and game times for the tournament later Saturday evening.
The Mavericks will be the No. 2 seed and will face third-seeded CSU Pueblo (3-8, 2-4 RMAC) for the third time this season in a semifinal on Friday. The ThunderWolves defeated Adams State (1-8, 0-6 RMAC), which will be the fourth seed, by a 15-7 margin in Alamosa, Colorado on Saturday.
