RICHMOND, Va.—The Bellarmine University lacrosse team will make history on Thursday evening when the Knights take the field in their first-ever postseason appearance. Bellarmine will square off with the Air Force Academy in the Southern Conference Championship Tournament at 5 p.m. at Robins Stadium on the campus of the University of Richmond.
The game is a rematch of an April 2 regular season game at Bellarmine in which the top-seeded Falcons won 8-7 in overtime. Air Force went on to go unbeaten in conference play (7-0) and is currently on a 13-game winning streak. The Falcons, currently ranked 12th nationally, opened the season 0-2 but haven't dropped a game since a 10-9 loss to Denver on Feb. 13.
Air Force's dominance has already extended into the postseason as the Falcons swept the major awards announced by the SoCon office. Falcon attacker Chris Walsch was tabbed SoCon Offensive Player of the Year, while teammate Doug Gouchoe was named Defensive Player of the Year. Head coach Eric Seremet and defender Brandon Jones made it a clean sweep, taking Coach of the Year and Freshman of the Year accolades, respectively. All told, Air Force placed seven players on the all conference first or second team.
The Knights won their last two games of the regular season to claim the No. 4 seed in the SoCon Tournament and finished 6-8 overall with a 4-3 mark in league play. Bellarmine had four players recognized as All-SoCon:
Tucker Ciessau (midfield), and
Taylor Stuart (LSM) made the first team while
Connor Harryman (FO) and
Kevin Fahey (Defense) made second team.
The other SoCon semifinal game is rematch of last year's championship game pitting High Point versus the host Richmond Spiders. Richmond, the No. 2 seed, finished 10-4 with a 6-1 league record, and the third-seeded Panthers were 9-5 overall and went 5-2 in SoCon play.
Both semifinal winners will enjoy a day off before battling for the SoCon crown on Saturday at noon. The two semifinal contests will be shown on the SoCon Digital Network, and the championship game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
2016 SoCon Men's Lacrosse Championship
Robins Stadium – Richmond, Va.
Thursday, May 5
Semifinals
Game 1 – No. 1 Air Force vs. No. 4 Bellarmine, 5 p.m.,
SoCon Digital Network
Game 2 – No. 2 Richmond vs. No. 3 High Point, 7:30 p.m.,
SoCon Digital Network
Saturday, May 7
Championship
Game 3 – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 12 p.m., ESPN3
