DELAWARE, Ohio (April 27, 2024) – With its hard-fought 10-8 win at Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday, the Denison University men's lacrosse team earned its fifth straight and 22nd overall North Coast Athletic Conference regular-season championship. It was also the third straight regular-season championship for the Big Red in the first three years of Head Coach Eric Koch's tenure leading the program.

It was 3-3 at the end of the first quarter and Denison trailed 5-4 at halftime, but this one was all about the third quarter for the Big Red, who outscored the Battling Bishops 6-1 in the period.

Five minutes into the third quarter, Nick Vance took advantage of a man-up opportunity for the Big Red and scored his second goal of the day and 20th goal of the season on an assist from Kevin Berutich.

That tied the game at 5-5 before the second goal of the game by Nate Kay just 43 seconds later made it 6-5 Big Red.

Colin MacLean won the ensuing faceoff and Tommy Quinson found Collin Murphy for just his third goal of the season, making it 7-5 just 16 seconds after Kay's goal and capping a stretch of three goals in under a minute for Denison.

Four minutes later, Luke Fisher found Jack Chace for his 10th goal of the season, and less than a minute later Fisher recorded another assist on the second goal of the game and 50th goal of the year by Quinson.

Then after another faceoff win by MacLean, Quinson scored again to double up the score at 10-5 and cap another 3-0 goal span for the Big Red that occurred this time in just one minute and 12 seconds.

OWU scored with just 13 seconds left in the third quarter and added back-to-back goals just one minute apart early in the fourth quarter, making it 10-8 with 11:35 left to play, but from there, the Big Red defense limited the Battling Bishops to 0-for-11 shooting with three failed clears the rest of the way.

Fisher (1 goal; 3 assists) and Quinson (3 goals; 1 assist) both finished with four points while in addition to scoring twice, Kay led the Big Red with two caused turnovers and four groundballs.

Denison was 11-of-20 on faceoffs as MacLean was 6-for-11 and Grant Larson was 5-for-9.

In goal, Andrew Albert made 15 saves and posted a clutch .652 save percentage.

Denison finishes up the regular season 12-5 overall, 8-0 in the NCAC and with eight wins in a row. OWU, meanwhile, falls to 11-4 and 7-1, sees its eight-game winning streak come to an end, and suffers its first loss at home this season (6-1).

The Big Red are now a combined 24-1 in NCAC games during their first three years with Coach Koch at the helm. In addition, Denison now passes OWU for the most regular-season men's lacrosse titles in the history of the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Next up, top-seeded Denison will host the NCAC Tournament Semifinals on Thursday, May 2. Their opponent will be the fourth-seeded College of Wooster, which the Big Red defeated by a score of 23-6 during Senior Day last Saturday.