LACROSSE DROPS SEASON OPENER TO WHEELING JESUIT

PLEASANTVILLE, NY- The Pace men's lacrosse team opened their 2009 season with a 10-4 loss to Cardinals of Wheeling Jesuit University. The Setters fall to 0-1 on the season, while the Cardinals improve to 2-0.

The Setters opened the game strong, netting their first goal of the season as Joseph Clark (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) passed it to T.J. Urban (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon) (Kinnelon, NJ/Kinnelon), who put Pace up 1-0 two minutes into the game. The Cardinals responded with five unanswered goals, while pitching a shutout on defense, to take a 5-1 lead into the break. John Miller (Kent, OH) scored two of the Wheeling Jesuit goals in the first half.

Pace would again tally the first goal of the second half as Clark tossed the ball into the net off an assist by Urban. Erik Jenkins (Pleasanton, CA) would push the Wheeling Jesuit lead back to four with 1:29 left in the third quarter. Jake Sheppard (Brunswick East, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia/East Victoria) (Brunswick East, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia/Northcote) netted a goal right before the end of the third quarter, making the score 6-3. Urban would get credit for his second assist on the day.

In the final quarter, the Setters would capitalize on a Wheeling Jesuit as James Hammel (N. Caldwell, NJ/West Essex) (North Caldwell, NJ/West Essex) would tally a man-up score to slice the Pace deficit to 6-4 with 13:29 left in the game. The Cardinals would answer quickly scoring two goals less than 30 seconds apart at the 11:18 and 10:52 marks to push their lead to 8-4. Wheeling Jesuit would tack on a pair of late goals in the final six minutes to account for the final score.

For Pace, Urban finished with three points (1G, 2A), while Clark has one goal and one assist.

For Wheeling Jesuit, Jenkins led the Cardinals with four points (2G, 2A), while Kyle Lucas (Bozeman, Mont./Bozeman) (Dublin, OH) totaled two goals and one assist. Jack Malone (Farmington Hills, MI) tallied three points (2G, 1A), while Miller netted a pair of goals.

In the nets, Timothy Matheis (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) recorded 11 saves, while his counterpart Joe Sims (Dublin, OH) totaled 16 saves in just over 56 minutes of play. Tony Tatro (Suffield, OH) had a pair of saves in the final four minutes of the game.

Pace returns to action when they host Dowling College in a non-conference game at Pace's Pleasantville campus for a 4:00 pm start.