Koala Men's Lacrosse Fall to Mount Vernon in Spartanburg
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH) (5-1) | 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 22 |
|
Columbia (SC) (1-3) | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
DUNCAN, S.C. - The Columbia College men's lacrosse team played a neutral site game against NAIA foe Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH) up the road at beautiful James F. Byrnes High School Stadium in nearby Duncan, SC. However, the Koalas put up a good effort but could not keep up with the Cougars in falling 22-8.
Columbia scored three goals in the opening quarter to take a 3-2 lead on goals from freshman midfielder William Tanks, and freshmen attackers Noah Norwood, and Tanner Kuykendall. However, MVNU outscored the Koalas 6-1 in the second quarter to take an 8-4 lead into the halftime break. Freshman attacker Ander Huffines scored on an assist from freshman midfielder Gavin Gordon in the second.
The Koalas then scored two quick goals to start off the third quarter as Gordon and freshman defender Michael Chasteen scored with freshman defender Gavin Hunt assisting to get CC to within two goals at 8-6. After two more MVN goals, Huffines then scored unassisted to get Columbia to within three at 10-7 with 5 minutes to play. Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Koalas would get with the Cougars ending the quarter on a 4-0 run to lead 14-7 after three.
The teams traded goals to start the fourth as Norwood's second goal made it 15-8. But MVN would go on another run to close out the game. Senior goalie Fin Landi made 13 saves on 32 shots on goal while freshman goalie Joshua Nguyen also made two saves. CC outshot MVN 10-7 in the first while the Cougars led 20-17 in shots after the first half. The ground ball count was also close with the Koalas collecting 34 to the Cougars' 33. Gordon led with five GBs while freshman midfielder Landon Flenniken and freshman faceoff Kai Correia added four apiece. Freshman defender JC Beacham also added 3 caused turnovers as well.
MVN, out of Ohio, improves to 5-1 overall.
The Koalas fall to 1-3 with the loss and will be right back in action on Sunday when they head up to Montreat, NC to battle UM-Dearborn at 4:00 pm in another NAIA neutral-site game.