ALBANY, N.Y. - The Saint Michael's College men's lacrosse team clinched a top-five seed in the upcoming Northeast-10 Conference Championship thanks to a 15-6 victory over The College of Saint Rose on Saturday at Sullivan Field. The Purple Knights received votes toward this week's United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) national poll.
 
The Purple and Gold remained tied with Bentley University for fourth in the NE10 standings with one regular-season game left; the top six make the postseason, and the top four host playoff games.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (8-4, 5-3 NE10), Saint Rose (7-9, 2-6 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior Cristian Reyes (Norwood, Mass./Xaverian Brothers), 5 goals, 2 assists, 5 ground balls, 2 caused turnovers
• Junior Sebastian Simonson (Spruce Grove, Alberta/Spruce Grove Composite), 2 goals, 2 assists, 4 ground balls
• Senior Nathan Woods (Ottawa, Ontario/Kent School), 2 goals, 2 ground balls
• Senior Dylan Morgan (Ashland, Mass./Ashland), 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 ground balls
• Junior Zach Watson (Quispamsis, New Brunswick/Pomfret School), 1 goal
• Sophomore Owen Balfour (Mashpee, Mass./Mashpee), 1 goal
• Sophomore Sean Murphy (Medway, Mass./Medway), 1 goal
• First-year Thomas Cahill (Georgetown, Mass./Georgetown), 1 goal
• First-year Taylor Wiercinski (Groton, Mass./Lawrence Academy), 1 goal
• Junior Ethan Hughes (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull), 1 assist, 4 ground balls
• Junior Cooper Wilson (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna), 14-for-23 faceoffs, 4 ground balls
• Junior Sean Regan (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland), 10 saves in 57:35, 2 ground balls, win
• Sophomore Mike Nelson (Worcester, Mass./Auburn), 0 saves in 2:25 of relief
• Senior Rocky Grillone (Brockton, Mass./Cardinal Spellman), 7 ground balls

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Graduate student Cam Smith, 2 goals
• Sophomore Noah Gibson, 2 goals
• Graduate student Eoghan Sweeney, 10-for-21 faceoffs, 7 ground balls
• Senior Ryan Gainor, 17 saves in 56:39, loss

GAME FACTS

• In addition to receiving votes toward the USILA national rankings, Saint Michael's was third in this week's New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) poll.
• The Purple Knights guaranteed themselves a winning record for the first time since 2013.
• Saint Michael's clinched its first postseason berth since 2021, when all NE10 squads made playoffs. This year is the first the Purple and Gold qualified for the postseason since 2013.
• The Purple Knights defeated Saint Rose for the first time since April 30, 2016, also in Albany. Seven of the past eight meetings had been decided by two goals or fewer.
• Reyes turned in a career-high-tying seven points while coming within one goal of a career high.
• With 165 faceoff wins this season, Wilson broke his own year-old program mark (154).
• Grillone picked up his 70th career caused turnover, matching Neil Kelly '13 for third in program annals.
• Simonson's 53 points this season match Brandon Kobelt '06 for eighth in program history, and are three short of his career high set last spring.
• Regan became the fourth Purple Knight netminder to win eight games in a season.

THE ACTION

• After Gibson struck at 11:37 of the first quarter for the opening goal, the Purple Knights yielded only two goals during the ensuing 37:55.
• Saint Michael's went in front for good when Morgan (5:39), Woods (5:23) and Reyes (3:13) all scored during a 2:26 span later in the first frame.
• Saint Rose wrapped two goals around a Reyes strike to creep within 4-3 by 5:46 of the second.
• The Purple Knights rattled off the next five goals to take command, with Reyes scoring twice and handing off an assist.
• Smith (3:42) and Gibson (2:50) scored in succession late in the third quarter to make it 9-5, but the visitors struck for six of the final seven goals. Simonson had all four of his points during the clinching sequence.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Tuesday at American International College, 7 p.m.