LEXINGTON, Va. (March 3, 2024) – The No. 18 Denison University men's lacrosse team traveled to take on No. 13 Washington & Lee University on Sunday and led by three goals three times in the game, but in the end, the Generals outscored the Big Red 4-1 in the fourth quarter to come out on top of by a final score of 13-11.

Denison led 2-0 as a goal by Clyde Bresnahan in the opening minute of the game was followed by a goal by Nate Kay five and half minutes in, both assisted on by Luke Fisher.

Andrew Albert, meanwhile, made four saves on W&L's first 13 shots of the contest before a Big Red turnover on a clear attempt, Denison's fifth turnover of the first quarter, led to the first goal of the game for the Generals with 3:30 left in the opening period. Turnovers would continue to be a theme that hurt the Big Red in this one.

Denison got the goal by W&L back in the final 20 seconds of the first quarter when an interception by Tristan Moss stopped W&L's attempt to tie the game and instead led to the second goal of the opening quarter by Kay.

Kay's third goal of the first half then made it 4-1 Big Red in the first three and a half minutes of the second quarter, but W&L would not be deterred and scored three goals in a span of three minutes and 16 seconds to tie it. All three of those goals came after a Denison turnover.

Fisher continued to be a playmaker for the Big Red and notched his third assist of the first half on a beautiful shot placement to the bottom right corner by Jack Chace to give Denison the lead back (5-4) with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Late in first half, a costly penalty by the Generals with the Big Red shot clock winding down gave Denison a man-up opportunity in the final 30 seconds of the period, and the Big Red paid it off as Kevin Berutich made it a 6-4 Denison lead at halftime. Denison was 2-for-3 on extra-man opportunities in the first half.

Denison then took its second three-goal advantage of the game (7-4) as Tommy Quinson lulled the W&L defense to sleep and got the scoring started in the second half with a goal less than three minutes in.

After a goal by Bresnahan made it 8-5 with 9:16 left in the third quarter, W&L again scored three straight goals to tie the game, this time doing so in just 59 seconds, and then the fourth straight goal by the Generals gave W&L its first lead of the game (9-8) with 5:12 remaining in the period.

Denison took the lead back (10-9) at the end of the third quarter after goals by Berutich and Jack Hines, but W&L answered with two early goals in the fourth quarter to retake the lead.

A goal by Chace tied it at 11-11 with 11:22 left to play, but W&L took the lead for good on a goal by Hillis Burns with 8:14 remaining. Then the turnover bug bit the Big Red one last time in the final two and a half minutes when an interception by James Haley on W&L's offensive side of the field led to an easy goal for Haley to make it 13-11.

Helping lead the Generals to victory in the fourth quarter was a 5-for-6 mark on faceoffs for W&L's Tyler Spano. In all, W&L ended the game on an 8-3 run.

Fisher dished out four assists for a team-high four points, while Kay (3 goals) and Berutich (2 goals, 1 assist) followed with three points apiece. Owen Holder led the defense with four groundballs and two caused turnovers, and Andrew Randall contributed a pair of caused turnovers and groundballs.

Albert finished with nine saves for the Big Red in goal, but it would not be enough as W&L's Nick De Cain, who was making his first-career start, matched him with nine stops and posted a .450 save percentage.

Denison falls to .500 at 2-2 while W&L earns its third straight win to improve to 3-1. The Generals are coming off arguably their most successful season in program history since transitioning into Division III, a season that saw the team break the program record for wins in a season (18), capture the program's 12th ODAC championship and earn its first trip to the national quarterfinals since 2004.

Saturday was also the start of a stretch of three-straight road games against fellow nationally-ranked teams for the Big Red. Next up for the Big Red is a Spring Break matchup against the No. 11 University of Lynchburg at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, in Lynchburg, Virginia.