Tufts Joins Elite Company with Third Consecutive NCAA Championship

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Tufts defeated RIT 17-11 on Sunday to secure its third straight NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse national championship at the University of Virginia’s Scott Stadium, and the Jumbos couldn’t have done it without national player of the year Jack Regnery.

The best player in Division III had five points and took home Most Outstanding Player honors, officially leading Tufts to dynasty status.

Tufts came into the day looking to enter a rarified air in the history books. Winning a third straight title meant joining Salisbury (2003-05), Middlebury (2000-02) and Hobart (1980-91) as the only teams to win at least three titles in a row. The Jumbos entered having bulldozed their way to the final, outscoring opponents 86-35 across four games and surpassing the 20-goal mark in each of the last three games.

Standing in the way of history was RIT. No stranger to championship weekend themselves, the Tigers have appeared in four of the last six Division III title games, winning twice. Their path to the final saw them take down three heavyweights — Salisbury, Babson and the only team to beat Tufts this year, Bowdoin.

Ultimately, Tufts battled through some early missteps and pulled away, punctuating a remarkable career for its senior class.

“It’s been a pretty incredible journey with this group, 85-5 record across four years, and enjoyed every minute of it,” head coach Casey D’Annolfo said. “At the end of their freshman year, they had to walk off the field having lost the national championship, and I think it’s pretty cool that they get to walk off as a senior class winning the national championship.”

Weather and field conditions played a factor early. A few days of rain made Scott Stadium’s grass slick. Players struggled to find footing, with a few losing traction on dodges resulting in turnovers. Some passes also went uncharacteristically awry for both teams, a result of wet sticks.

Both contributed to the slower pace of the game. The Tufts defense held up well and played a quality game, forcing 17 of RITs 23 turnovers, and Jack Old finished with a season-high 17 saves.

“We have, on the defense, a next-play mentality,” Old said. “We have so much trust in these offensive guys that they’re going to keep pushing. RIT is a great team. They never quit the whole game, so we just continued to say next play, next play, no matter what would happen.”

Tufts scored first with an inside finish by Will Emsing. RIT answered with a nice underneath dodge and score from David Charney, and then Erich Acton added a transition goal 30 seconds later to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

Garrett Kelly answered for Tufts on a leading goal through contact from three RIT defenders that just barely snuck under Alex Zborowski. Again, RIT answered. This time, Charney initiated from up top, beat his man on an alley dodge and tucked it low to put the Tigers back in front.

The punch and counterpunch continued as Tufts scored two quick ones, the first from Regnery. The second was as Tufts-branded a goal as you’ll see. A picked off pass made it from one end of the field to the other in three rapid passes, resulting in a doorstep goal for Ethan O’Neill.

“Collectively, we were battling and clawing for every ground ball out there — even if we lost them, we were fighting for them. There were moments of really good stuff,” RIT head coach Jake Coon said.

After the game, Coon revealed that Charney has been playing with a broken wrist for the last five weeks and rolled his ankle against St. Lawrence on May 1 in the Liberty League tournament.

“In the first half, I thought we were actually up in quite a few categories, except for the score, unfortunately,” Coon said.

The teams continued their back-and-forth bout through the second quarter. A key sequence occurred late in the frame. RIT called a timeout to keep possession with 2:05 left in the half and Tufts leading 8-6. Out of the timeout, an RIT pass sailed past its intended target, resulting in a turnover at the midfield line.

A quick Tufts restart led to a Garrett Kelly goal and a three-score lead. The Jumbos won the ensuing faceoff, called timeout, and Kelly added another. Then Tufts again won the faceoff and called timeout. Then came a Brooks Hauser tally. Three goals roughly one minute apart, and in a blink, it went from 8-6 Tufts to 11-6 Tufts at halftime.

“We knew we hadn’t really played great lacrosse for the first quarter and a half. We were a little bit tight,” D’Annolfo said. “Once we got down there it was like, ‘Hey, there’s 90 seconds left, let’s fly around,’ and they finally shook off the nerves a little bit. We knew that there were going to be opportunities like that to go on a run.”

Out of the break, the Tufts onslaught continued. Hauser completed his hat trick to make it 12-6, and the Jumbos looked to be running away with it.

“I think our offense has gotten to the point, this time of year, where we’re just kind of flowing, clicking, and that chemistry just comes naturally,” Hauser said. “It’s really easy to play off the guys out there. They’re all studs.”

The Tigers found ways to make momentum plays and battle. A soaked shot by an RIT defender became a transition opportunity, but the shot from Acton hit the post, and then the Tigers were whistled for being in the crease. A few minutes later, the Tigers had a 6-v-4 opportunity but turned the ball over seconds into the extra-man opportunity, and Tufts killed the penalties.

Consecutive RIT goals from Charney and Ryan Langille sparked some life in the Tigers, but Regnery finished an alley-oop pass from Emsing right afterward to stifle all remaining hope.

“I’m proud of our guys. They stuck with it and didn't fold,” Coon said. “There were people there that thought we’d lose by 15 or 20.”

It wasn’t just that Tufts found answers to big RIT plays. The Jumbos found them with highlight-reel goals. RIT continued to battle and tried to push the rock up the hill, but by the end of the third quarter, Tufts had a 16-10 lead and was firmly in control.

The Jumbos’ wave of goals just kept hitting RIT.

“We call it psychological warfare, knowing that at some point that’s going to happen,” D’Annolfo said. “One thing we always say is that it just takes one guy. One guy to pick up a ground ball, make a big play, or score a goal that’s going to start that wave.”

Tufts finally took its foot off the gas in the fourth quarter, using extended possessions to shorten the game. RIT started to take more chances and tried to force turnovers to get back into it. Cole Friedlander converted one empty netter for Tufts late in the fourth, but otherwise, the Jumbos were content to eat up clock toward their third straight title.

Regnery, Hauser and Emsing had five points each, while Kelly had a hat trick.

RIT will return a wealth of weapons in 2027, including their top scorers from the game. Sanders had four points, while Acton and Charney each had hat tricks. Zborowski finished with 14 saves.

“We have a young group of guys that we’re pretty excited about,” Coon said. “I really hope they take as much as they can from the seniors and the leadership. We’ve gone a good job over the years passing down the torch in terms of what we do collectively as a program, and what’s required of you off the field and on the field. What’s most important is that as the torch is passed, these guys learned a ton from these upperclassmen.”