Conference Championships: Dangerous Danes are Dancing

A UAlbany team that began the season in the Top 20, and has weapons galore, will be an early-round nightmare matchup for someone. The Great Danes won their third straight America East championship – the third time under Scott Marr that they’ve registered a three-peat – beating Vermont 14-11 at home.

The America East championship is the 12th all-time for UAlbany and they previously won three straight from 2003 to 2005 and from 2013 to 2015.

A Great Dane team that was battle-tested this season by Cornell, Georgetown, Penn, Yale and others in its non-conference slate, continued a perfect run through America East competition to improve to 11-6 for the season.

Junior Ryan Doherty poured in a season-high seven points on five goals and two assists, following up on a four-goal effort in the semifinals, to earn tournament Most Outstanding Player honors, but it was far from an easy victory for UAlbany.

Vermont scored the first two goals of the game, led 6-3 late in the first half and had an 8-5 lead early in the third quarter. UAlbany then went on a 7-1 run to take a 12-9 lead early in the fourth quarter. Silas Richmond, the dynamic attacker who been the America East Outstanding Offensive Player the last two seasons, scored a hat trick during the run, including the game-tying and go-ahead goals. Richmond finished the game with four goals and three assists and Jackson Palumb added three goals.

Sophomore goalie Brady Smith made 13 saves to earn the win for UAlbany. Sean McCeney, Ethan Pearson and Tristan Whitaker each scored two goals for Vermont, which finished the season 7-7 and played in the league title game for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.

✅ Results   
Conference championship game scores

AMERICA EAST
(1) UAlbany def. (3) Vermont, 14-11 

ATLANTIC 10
(1) Richmond  def. (3) Saint Joseph's, 8-6 

BIG EAST
(1) Georgetown def. (2) Providence, 14-6

BIG TEN
(2) Penn State def. (1) Johns Hopkins, 16-8

CAA
(3) Stony Brook def. (1) Towson, 13-11

MAAC
(2) Marist def. (1) Siena, 12-8

NEC
(1) Robert Morris def. (2) LIU, 8-7

🌟 TOP PERFORMANCES

Colby Baldwin and Reid Gills, Penn State: The Nittany Lions controlled possession against Johns Hopkins, winning 19 of 28 faceoffs in the game in a 16-8 victory for the Big Ten championship, Penn State's first since 2019. Baldwin won 11 of 15 and Gills won eight of 13.

Graeme MacLennan, Robert Morris: The senior scored the game-winning goal with two seconds left, after LIU's Aidan Zuhoski had tied the game with just 27 seconds left, to give the Colonials the Northeast Conference championship. MacLennan finished with a hat trick, just the second of his career.

Tommy Wilk, Stony Brook: Wilk, a Baltimore native playing in his home city, made eight of his 17 saves in the fourth quarter as the Seawolves upset top-seeded Towson, 13-11, in the CAA championship game. Wilk had 16 saves in Stony Brook's semifinal win over Drexel and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Performer.

Liam Connor, Georgetown: The nation's leader in assists played true to his form, scoring a goal and dishing five assists as the Hoyas beat Providence 14-6 for the Big East championship. Connor, a transfer from Colgate along with his brother, Rory, has 51 assists this season. Rory has 50 goals.

Connor Knight, Richmond: Defense brought home the Atlantic 10 championship to the Spiders and first-year starting goalie Connor Knight was the backbone of the unit, making nine saves. Richmond is headed to the NCAA tournament for the seventh times in the 13 years of the program's existence.

Richie Metzger, Marist: Metzger, a freshman goalie, made 12 saves to lead the Red Foxes past Siena 12-8 to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship.

📈 NCAA TOURNAMENT IMPACT

Penn State was pretty much off the bubble after beating Maryland in the Big Ten semifinals on Thursday, but the Nittany Lions now have nothing to worry about after securing the Big Ten's AQ with a win over Johns Hopkins - also a safe NCAA tournament bet.

Towson was the heavy favorite for the CAA championship, but fell at home to Stony Brook, 13-11. The Seawolves are now tourney-bound for the first time since winning the America East title in 2012. Towson, despite a win over Virginia this season, has little hope for an at-large bid. Patrick Stevens will have more from this game later on USA Lacrosse Magazine.

📖 STORY LINES OF NOTE

Siena's resilience was on full display for the last six months. Head coach Liam Gleason died in a tragic accident at home last December, and his former assistant coach Tim Cox took over the program. The Saints bounced back from an opening-gmae loss to Boston University, stringing together seven straight wins at one point. Patrick Radomski, one of the top scorers in the country, was lost for the season due to an injury in the middle of the winning streak. In Thursday's MAAC semifinal victory, starting goalie Vito DeBellis was injured late in the game and was unavailable for the championship. Johnny Carrington and James O'Hara split the duties on Saturday, combining for 16 saves, but the season came to an end.

Second-year Marist head coach Dave Scarcello has now won MAAC championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach at Marist.

Georgetown has now won 16 consecutive Big East tournament games, resulting in eight straight league championships. The last time anyone else won the league was in 2017 when Marquette and Providence both pulled semifinal upsets and Marquette brought home the title with a win over Providence.

Robert Morris has the nation's longest winning streak at 13 straight games. The streak includes two overtime games and Saturday's game-winner with two seconds left.