BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont men's lacrosse team won its eighth straight game Thursday night defeating UAlbany 17-7 in the America East Semifinals to advance to their fourth straight America East title game. The Catamounts will host the America East Championship for the first time in program history Saturday at noon from Virtue Field as they face the three-seed UMBC. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
 
RELATED LINKS
Box Score | Box Score (pdf.)
CatamounTV Highlights
Championship Game Tickets
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"We knew they were going to play with a lot of emotion and we knew they were going to give us their best game and it was very important that we started quickly so that we could put ourselves in the drivers' seat," head coach Chris Feifs said. "It means a lot that we get to compete on our home field in front of our home fans in the championship. It's going to be a hard fought game. I know our seniors really think it's a special time and we want to finish on a high note."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Vermont scored three goals in 2:11 of game action to grab an early edge 4:35 into the game. Brock Haley, Thomas McConvey and Michael McCormack scored with Griffin Fenech assisting on each tally. McConvey added another on the man-up to make it 4-0 with 8:34 to go in the first quarter.
• UAlbany's Graydon Hogg ended the Vermont run with his 24th goal of the season with 7:35 to go. McConvey completed a first quarter hat trick 42 seconds later to make it 5-1. Haley added his second of the game with 3:15 left and Vermont took a 6-1 lead into the second quarter.
• McConvey's fourth of the game made it 7-1 1:33 into the second frame. The Great Danes and Catamounts played to a 2-2 stalemate the rest of the quarter and UVM took a 9-3 lead into the halftime break.
• McConvey kicked off the scoring in the third quarter as well with his fifth of the contest man-up to make it 10-3. David Closterman made it an eight-goal lead with his first of the night with 7:20 to go in the third.
• UAlbany scored two goals in 1:05 to make 11-5 with 4:23 to go. Vermont answered right back scoring three goals in 1:35 of game action to make it 14-5. The final goal of the run was McConvey's seventh of the game and 50th of the season.
• James Basile, Liam Limoges and Nick Alviti closed out the scoring in the final frame for the Catamounts as they cruised to their second double-digit win over UAlbany in program history.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Vermont has won its last seven meetings with UAlbany. Before Coach Feifs tenure at Vermont the Catamounts had defeated UAlbany four times.
• The Catamounts scored 17 goals on 26 shots Thursday night.
• For the second straight game Thomas McConvey scored seven goals. In his last six games, he's scored 28 goals.
• Ryan Cornell made 12 saves for the Catamounts tonight, it was the ninth time this season he's made 10 or more.
• Thursday night's crowd of 1,109 was the largest this season at Virtue Field.
• Following tonight's game UVM is averaging 8.9 goals against this season which ranks third in the NCAA. UVM hasn't given up more than 10 goals in a game since March 16.

WHO'S NEXT
For the second time in the last four years Vermont will face UMBC in the America East title game. The championship game is set for 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 from Virtue Field. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU and tickets are available by clicking here. All UVM students will receive free admission with their Cat Card courtesy of the UVM President's Office.