Photo courtesy of America East Conference)
For 29 minutes and 47 seconds, the America East final could not have been any closer. No. 2-seed Vermont and No. 4-seed UAlbany traded goals, the margin was never greater than one goal, and the score was tied at every increment between 1-1 and 7-7.
Thomas McConvey scored with 13 seconds remaining, then FOGO Tommy Burke punctuated his dominant first half (16-of 17, 12 groundballs) by winning to himself and scoring a goal with eight seconds remaining. The Catamounts stayed outside for halftime and parlayed that momentum into scoring the game’s next four goals, opening up a lead they’d be able to sit on for the last 20 minutes en route to a 15-10 victory to claim the America East championship.
Mon May 3 2021 | Patrick Stevens | College
PHOTO BY JEFFREY A. CAMARATI / UNC ATHLETICS
Chris Gray had three goals and three assists in UNC s 15-12 win over Duke on Sunday.
For one week, anyway, the ACC will largely exit the college lacrosse stage.
The ACC league schedule concluded Sunday when North Carolina handled Duke 15-12 to claim a share of the regular season title. Eight conference tournaments are on tap this week, with 34 teams participating. (That doesn’t include Ohio State and Penn State, both bounced in Saturday’s Big Ten quarterfinals).
Those automatic bids half of the 16-team NCAA tournament field will be allocated in a span of a little more than 48 hours starting Friday afternoon. But the top of the field seems pretty set.
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Appearing in three of the past four America East title games (2016, 2018, 2019), the Vermont Catamounts have been one of the stronger mid-majors in college lacrosse, and certainly one of the strongest teams within their conference, in recent years.
They held a 3-1 record and looked to be a contender for the America East title once again during the shortened 2020 season. Their three victories came against Quinnipiac, Merrimack, and Dartmouth. They lone loss was to Holy Cross.
Since Chris Feifs’ inaugural season in Burlington (2017), the Catamounts have certainly had excellent pieces on both ends of the field. But this program’s identity has been and remains on defense. Vermont ranked 14th in scoring defense in 2017, seventh in 2018, 10th in 2019, and fourth during the shortened 2020 season. They also have also had the luxury of having one of nation’s premier goalies, Nick Washuta, in between the pipes each of those four seasons.