MONTEVALLO, Ala. – In search of a share of the Peach Belt Conference regular season championship for a fourth consecutive season on Saturday, the Lander men's lacrosse team came up short in a 20-13 loss to Montevallo.
By virtue of the result, the Bearcats (6-8, 2-2 PBC) collected the No. 3 seed in the PBC Tournament and will face No. 2 seed Flagler on Friday in the semifinals.
More information on that matchup and the tournament can be found here.
Montevallo (8-7, 4-0 PBC) scored eight times in the third quarter to gain a 15-8 lead that Lander was unable to overcome in the fourth to win the PBC regular season title.
Matt Duarte scored five goals and added two assists for his second seven-point game of the season (Lincoln Memorial on Feb. 14 was the other).
Josh Rosa contributed his first hat-trick in a Lander uniform alongside two assists in a season-best five-point game as five other Bearcats scored once.
LU scored the opening pair of goals across the first 7:45 of the afternoon in hopes of spoiling the Falcons' Senior Day. But UM scored seven of the game's next eight goals to take a 7-3 lead with 5:39 left in the first half.
Duarte and
Vince Rappold followed by scoring 35 seconds apart to narrow it to 7-5 at halftime; Rappold had career-highs of three assists and four points.
Montevallo went on a 5-0 run during the third quarter. The Bearcats scored four unanswered during the fourth to bring the score within 17-13 with 7:21 to play, but the Falcons didn't allow a goal after that.
Lander put 30 shots on goal and outpaced UM 55-49 in total shots.
