UMBC

Burlington, Vt.—The fifth-ranked UMBC men’s lacrosse team won its school record ninth straight game and completed a sweep in America East Conference play with a hard-earned 8-6 victory at Vermont.

UMBC improves to 10-3 overall and 5-0 in the America East Conference, while Vermont’s playoff hopes ended and the Catamounts fell to 5-11, 1-4. The Retrievers posted their third consecutive 10-plus win season, also a new school record.

Senior midfielder Terry Kimener and junior attackman Ryan Smith led the Retrievers with two goals and an assist each. Freshman attackman Dom Scalzo added a pair of goals for UMBC.

The Retrievers led, 6-5 at intermission, but Vermont’s Ryan Gillette scored an extra-man goal 15 seconds in the third quarter. But UMBC would shut the door on the Catamounts the final 29:45. Smith would get the game winning goal on an unassisted score with 4:45 to play in the third stanza and sophomore attackman Matt Latham added an insurance marker with 1:10 remaining.

UMBC outshot Vermont, 31-20 as Retriever netminder Jeremy Blevins recorded seven saves.

The Catamounts jumped out to a 3-1advantage in the first quarter before Kimener scored with 1:21 to play in the stanza to bring the visitors to within a goal. After Vermont’s Kyle Hahn scored 37 seconds into the second quarter, UMBC outscored UVM, 4-1 and secured a 6-5 halftime advantage. Scalzo scored both of his goals in this run and freshman Bobby Stockton scored the go-ahead goal with 4:05 to play in the half.

The top-seeded Retrievers will face fourth-seeded Binghamton in Thursday’s second America East semifinal match-up at 7:30 p.m.. Albany will face Stony Brook in the opener at 4:00 p.m.

Notes: UMBC was also a perfect 5-0 in America East play in 2006 and would go on to win their lone tournament title at UMBC Stadium… Kimener has a 22-game scoring streak and has multiple points in 11 consecutive games… UMBC is 23-4 all-time in America East Conference play, including 9-3 on the road.