Blue Hens’ Historic Season Comes To An End In 18-11 Loss

Thursday, May 2

Amherst, Mass.

7:30 p.m.

University of Delaware

10-5Overall

vs. #2 Towson

10-4Overall

Delaware

Towson

Blue Hens’ Historic Season Comes To An End In 18-11 Loss

5/2/2019 11:00:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – A season that brought the most victories in nearly 10 years. A season that saw historic numbers reached. A season that saw memories made.

It all came to a close on Thursday night when the University of Delaware men's lacrosse team dropped an 18-11 decision to the second-seeded Towson in the CAA semifinals, hosted at UMass' Garber Field.

"This was not the way anyone in this locker room wanted this to end, but credit to Towson for making the plays and moving on in the tournament," head coach Ben DeLuca said. "We battled all year and that didn't stop tonight, unfortunately, we just didn't play our best game, but this is something we'll learn from and grow heading into the future for this program."

The 10 victories are the most since 2011 for the Blue Hens and it marked the first time since 2010-11 that Delaware reached the CAA Tournament in consecutive seasons.

Senior co-captain Joe Eisele wrapped up his career with four goal performance, finishing his outstanding tenure with the Blue Hens with 89 goals and 105 points, ranking in the top-30 in program history in both categories. Classmate Jackson Finigan concluded his adversity-filled career with his best performance in three years with two goals and one assist.

Junior Charlie Kitchen extended his scoring streak to 32 straight games with two goals and two assists on the night, while Tye Kurtz set a new program record for points by a freshman, finishing the year with 52.

Junior Matt DeLuca wrapped up his historic season by becoming just the 11^thplayer in program history with 200 or more saves in a single season. His 16 save performance also put him over 500 for his career, the eighth-highest total in school history.

"We can't thank our seniors enough for what they did for this program. To achieve what we achieved this year and to reach the most wins in nearly 10 years and another year back to the CAA Tournament, it all was because of the sacrifices and dedication that senior class made for this program," Coach DeLuca added.

The defense of the Blue Hens got things started strong from the start, limiting the Tigers to just one goal in the first 19 minutes, while Delaware's offense found the back of the net three times to take a 3-1 lead.

Towson scored three straight goals to take a lead, but back-to-back goals by Kitchen and Jake Govett reclaimed the advantage for the Blue Hens at 5-4 with 4:43 to play in the first.

The Tigers scored three more in the final three minutes to take a 7-5 advantage into the break.

Towson kept momentum on its side in the second half, scoring the first six goals out of halftime to push the lead to 13-5. Eisele would get going late in the third, scoring twice and getting Delaware within 13-8.

However, the Tigers answered and would hold on for a 18-11 victory.