DANVILLE, Ky. (April 26, 2023) – The top-four men’s lacrosse teams from the Southern Athletic Association regular season will descend on Danville, Kentucky for semifinals and the championship of the 2023 SAA Tournament.
CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
Regular season champion Centre will serve as host of all three games at the brand new Andy Frye Stadium. The event will be a part of a busy weekend on campus with the Colonels also hosting the SAA Track & Field Championships and opening round games of the SAA Baseball Championship.
Top-seed Centre will meet four-seed Birmingham-Southern at 5:30 p.m. in the first semifinal Friday, April 28 while two-seed Sewanee and three-seed Rhodes faceoff at 8 p.m. on the other side of the bracket. The championship game is slated for Sunday, April 30 at 1 p.m.
No. 1 Centre vs. No. 4 Birmingham-Southern
Regular season champion Centre suffered its only loss of the SAA season to BSC, a 16-14 setback on March 26 in Danville. The Colonels led by 14-10 with just 11:25 to play before the Panthers ripped off seven-straight goals and grabbed the win. Austin Johnson had four goals while Cameron Herd put up three goals and three assists. Robert Marquet had a goal and six assists for BSC. Max Spears led Centre with three goals and an assist. David Caldwell, Will Hubbs and Ryan Black each posted two goals.
Black has 39 goals and Hubbs 38 to rank sixth and seventh in the SAA. As a team, Centre topped the league with 16 goals a game, winning by an average of 7.2 goals a night.
Cameron Herd’s 53 scores leads BSC and is third in the conference while Marquet leads the SAA with 2.3 assists per game. Cade Marino tops the league with 2.63 caused turnovers a game. The Panthers got past Berry 15-12 in the quarterfinals. Herd scored five goals while Reid Harrison added four.
No. 2 Sewanee vs. No. 3 Rhodes
Sewanee was unbeaten in SAA play heading into its season finale against Centre but fell 17-15 and dropped to the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The Tigers and Rhodes met in Memphis on April 2 and won an overtime thriller, 9-8. Trailing by one late, Ashton Aton knotted the score with five minutes left and scored the game winner in overtime. Devon Root led the way with three goals for Sewanee. Conor Casey and Dylan Farley both scored twice to pace Rhodes.
Luke Valentine leads the Sewanee attack with 25 goals and five assists on the year. Davis Gillenwater has 20 goals and eight assists while Phelps Thomas has found the back of the net 23 times.
Rhodes beat Hendrix 18-7 in its quarterfinal game last Saturday. The Lynx led 11-6 at the half and outscored the Warriors 7-1 the rest of the way. Drew Downes led the way with seven goals and two assists while Andrew Murphy scored five times.
Downes is second in the conference with 64 goals and sixth with 19 assists this season. Goalie Josh Salisbury tops the SAA with a .589 save percentage.
Fans can follow the SAA men’s lacrosse tournament live at SAA-Sports.com.