GRANVILLE, Ohio (May 7, 2023) – For the third year in a row, the Denison University men's lacrosse team hosted Kenyon College for the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, and for the third year in a row, the Big Red were victorious. However, in this matchup, the second-seeded Owls took a 10-3 halftime lead and gave the No. 13 nationally-ranked and top-seeded Big Red all they could handle until a game-ending 6-1 run for Denison finishing with the game-winning goal by Quinn O'Donnell with just 10 seconds remaining.

With the win, Denison receives the NCAC's automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA Division III Championship. This is Denison's seventh straight and eighth overall NCAC Tournament Championship since it was introduced by the conference in 2013.

Trailing 12-8 after a goal by Kenyon with 5:42 left in the third quarter, a goal by Clyde Bresnahan (4:43) assisted by Luke Fisher closed out the scoring in the third quarter.

Denison then opened up the fourth quarter with a goal by Fisher assisted by Ethan Tyack with 12:48 left to play before a goal by Lawton Corrigan made it just a one-score game (12-11) with 11:14 remaining.

With 6:33 to go, Tyack assisted on the game-tying goal by O'Donnell to make it 12-12, and then a minute and a half later, a goal by Gavin Pappas put the Big Red ahead for the first time in the game with exactly five minutes remaining.

Kenyon netted the equalizer with 3:25 left, and then after a big save by Archer Darrach to help the Denison defense fight off a man-up opportunity for the Owls, that set up a final possession for the Big Red that saw Tyack make his third assist of the fourth quarter for the game-winning from O'Donnell.

Darrach finished with 12 saves in goal while his counterpart, Adam Hall, made 18 saves, including eight in the fourth quarter.

It was a rough start for the Big Red, who took 16 shots in the first quarter but finished with only one goal.

Facing a seven-goal deficit (10-3) at halftime, Denison came out of the break with back-to-back goals by Will Kenney and Fisher just 39 seconds apart in the opening four minutes of the period.

Then after the first of only three second-half goals for Kenyon made it 11-5, a pair of goals just 50 seconds apart by Jack Hines were followed by a goal by Tommy Quinson 62 seconds later to get the Big Red to within a manageable three-goal margin (11-8) with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter.

In all, Denison outscored Kenyon 11-3 in the second half, including 5-1 in the fourth quarter. Denison also outshot Kenyon 38-20 in the second half and forced the Owls into five fourth-quarter turnovers.

Fisher (2 goals, 3 assists) led the Big Red with five points while Tyack (1 goal, 3 assists) had four points, Hines (2 goals, 1 assist) had three and Pappas (2 goals), O'Donnell (2 goals), Bresnahan (1 goal, 1 assist) and Colin Donegan (1 goal, 1 assist) each had two points.

Brooks Crowley led the Big Red with five groundballs while Andrew Brim finished with three caused turnovers.

After dishing out two assists in Denison's 18-6 win over Oberlin College in the semifinals and then scoring both the game-tying and game-winning goals in the championship game against Kenyon, O'Donnell was named the NCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Quinson (7 goals, 8 groundballs), Tyack (2 goals, 6 assists, 6 groundballs), Fisher (2 goals, 3 assists) and Darrach (2-0, 120 minutes, 19 goals allowed, 22 saves, .537 save percentage, 9.50 goals-against average).

Both teams came into the game riding an eight-game winning streak, but it was Denison which avenged its only conference loss of the season and improved to 16-3 overall while Kenyon, which was the third team receiving votes in the latest USILA / Blatant Lacrosse 2023 Men's Coaches Division III Poll, fell to 15-2 with its first loss since March 25.

Denison will now advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the 27th time in program history. The NCAA will announce the 2023 NCAA Division III Championship field tonight (May 7) at 9 p.m. with a live selection show airing on NCAA.com. The NCAA Tournament opens with the first round on Wednesday, May 10, followed by the next two rounds on Saturday, May 13, and Sunday, May 14.