Men’s lacrosse falls in NCAA tournament against University of Virginia

Ryan Giacobbi, Contributor

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The RMU men’s lacrosse team (9-8, 4-2 NEC) ended their up-and-down 2019 season after they were dealt a 19-10 loss against the University of Virginia (14-3, 3-1 ACC), effectively eliminating the Robert Morris Colonials from the NCAA Tournament.

In the first quarter, Virginia opened up the scoring at the 7:18 mark thanks to a goal from Matt Moore with an assist from Michael Kraus. Within the next four minutes, however, Virginia scored two more goals to jump out to a 3-0 lead. In the last three minutes, Tyson Gibson and Austin Popovich each scored a goal, with the former assisting the latter with his goal. Virginia also scored another goal between the two RMU goals at 2:22 to end the first quarter with Virginia leading 4-2.

After three straight goals by Virginia to open the second quarter and make the lead over RMU 7-2, Robert Morris and Virginia alternated goals to end the second quarter with Virginia ahead 9-5. The three goals scored by the Colonials in the second quarter were scored by Gibson, Ryan Smith, and Corson Kealey respectively.

The third quarter was patterned with two goals by Virginia, then a goal by Robert Morris. After each team repeated that same process a second time, Virginia capped off the third quarter with another goal by Mikey Herring made the Cavaliers’ lead a whopping 14-7.

The fourth quarter featured five goals by Virginia and three goals by Robert Morris to make the final score 19-10 in favor of Virginia. The three goals scored by RMU were from Schmitt with one goal and Kealey with two goals.

Robert Morris ends their 2019 season in the NCAA Tournament once again. Their final record on the season was 9-8, and the Colonials captured another NEC Championship.