MANCHESTER, N.H. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team capped off the regular season with a 15-3 victory over Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday, reaching 10 victories on the season and earning a share of the Northeast Division Regular Season Championship.
Through 10 regular season games, the No. 11-ranked Hawks posted a perfect 10-0 record to earn the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Northeast-10 Conference postseason tournament. Le Moyne finished with an 8-0 record in the Southwest Division, earning a share of the regular season title, but the Hawks captured the top seed via tiebreaker with two additional victories.
Saint Anselm has won at least a share of the NE10 regular season championship for the first time in program history. The Hawks have won 13 consecutive games dating back to the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the longest streak in team history, and have earned a first round bye in the NE10 playoffs.
The Hawks will host a game in the NE10 Quarterfinals on Saturday, May 1 at 1 p.m. once the winner of the First Round showdown between the No. 9 seed Assumption and Saint Michael's, the No. 8 seed, is decided. Saint Anselm has qualified for each NE10 postseason championship since the 2016 season.
Saint Anselm controlled the game from the opening face-off, outshooting the host Penmen by a 64-to-33 margin and winning 48 of the game's 85 ground balls. The Hawks also committed just 10 turnovers in the game while SNHU totaled 22 miscues on the day – Saint Anselm successfully completed all 17 of its clearance attempts.
Senior Ryan Richards (Mendon, Mass.) scored a career-high five goals in the game, matching a career-high with four assists for nine points (5-4=9). His nine point effort was the highest by a Saint Anselm student-athlete since Chris Murphy '09 posted nine points (via seven goals, including the overtime game-winner) at Southern New Hampshire on Apr. 15, 2008.
Sophomore Jack Andrews (Cumberland, R.I.) handed out four assists for Saint Anselm, setting a career-high mark while also tallying two goals. Senior Matt Ward (Shrewsbury, Mass.) scored three goals, becoming the sixth student-athlete in team history to score 100 goals in a Hawks uniform, and each member of the Hawks starting lineup joined him with at least one ground ball on the afternoon.
Saint Anselm attempted to shut out its opponent in the first half for the fourth time on Saturday, but the Penmen got on the board with 3:31 to go in the second quarter to snap a 6-0 scoring run. The Hawks bridged the first and second halves with seven more goals, opening up a 13-1 lead before the second SNHU goal with 15:26 to go in the game.
The Hawks outscored the Penmen in the fourth quarter by a two-to-one margin, extending the lead to a game-high 13 goals with 4:36 to go. Southern New Hampshire had the final goal of the game with 3:26 left as the home team outshot the Hawks, 13-to-11, in the game's final 15 minutes.
Senior CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.), the NCAA Division II leader in goals-against average and save percentage, was spectacular once again in net, stopping nine of 11 shots. He needs just one additional victory in goal to match the team's all-time single-season record of 11. Sophomore Will Davis (Franklin, Mass.) played the fourth quarter for Saint Anselm, making two saves on three shots.
Ronan DePaul made 19 saves for the Penmen in the loss. David Wiedenfeld had two assists for SNHU with Jack Terrones and Chris Valentine adding goals. Gennaro Marra won the majority of the face-offs in the game, claiming 11 of the game's 21 face-off victories.
