Mansfield, Mass. – The 2021 Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team has been selected to the Northeast-10 Conference Hall of Fame Class of 2026, as announced by the conference office.
The Athletic Department and the NE10 will honor the 2021 team during a to-be-determined home men's lacrosse game in Spring 2027.
The 2021 men's lacrosse team, which is the seventh Le Moyne team to earn selection in the NE10 Hall of Fame and is the eighth national championship-winning NE10 men's lacrosse team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, captured the program's sixth national championship when it defeated Lenoir-Rhyne, 12-6, on May 30 at UConn's Rentschler Field. With the victory, which capped a 15-0 season under head coach
Dan Sheehan, the team became the sixth undefeated national champion in DII history, four of which are Le Moyne teams. Fifth-year attackman Matt Hutchings led the Dolphins in the title game with a career-high six goals on the way to being named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player.
Playing a New York and Massachusetts-based schedule due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Dolphins went 9-0 in the regular season, including four wins over ranked opponents. The team registered a pair of wins over sixth-ranked Adelphi and home and road wins over 10th-ranked Pace.
The team opened the NE10 Championship with a 15-5 win over Franklin Pierce and then defeated Adelphi for the third time, 14-10, in the semifinals. The Dolphins captured their 15th NE10 Championship with a 9-4 victory at ninth-ranked Saint Anselm. Graduate student Jake Nelson recorded five points on four goals and one assist to earn Championship Most Valuable Player honors.
After getting a bye in the first round of the NCAA Championships as the top seed in the North Region, the Dolphins faced Saint Anselm for the second time in eight days in the national quarterfinals. The Dolphins scored the first four goals of the game en route to an 11-7 victory over the eighth-ranked and fifth-seeded Hawks. Hutchings led the Dolphins in the contest with seven points on three goals and four assists.
In the semifinals against third-ranked, third-seeded and host Mercyhurst University, the Lakers took a 6-4 lead just under 30 seconds into the third quarter. The Dolphins answered with six straight goals (with a goal and four assists coming from Hutchings) over 15 minutes to take control of the game. Mercyhurst closed within 10-9, but Nelson finished off the scoring for an 11-9 win to send the Dolphins to their 10th national championship game in a span of 17 seasons.
After falling behind Lenoir-Rhyne, 4-2, through the first 17 minutes of the national championship game, the Dolphins scored three straight to take the lead before the Bears evened the score at 5-5 heading into halftime. Le Moyne tallied five goals in seven minutes in the third quarter to take control of the contest and then added two more over the opening nine minutes of the fourth quarter for a 12-5 advantage. In addition to Hutchings' six-goal performance, Zach Pierce had a career-high seven points on two goals and five assists, while Frank Delia registered a career-high 15 saves, including six in the fourth quarter. Connor Haims, Nick Fraterrigo and Colin Sypek each caused two turnovers to lead the defensive effort in holding the nation's second-highest scoring offense to just one goal in the second half.
Hutchings was named the USILA Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award recipient as the Division II Player of the Year as well as the USILA North Region Player of the Year, while the Dolphins had eight USILA All-America selections (Hutchings, Nate Arnold, Ben McCreary, Ross Filtch, John Galimi, Fraterrigo, Sypek and Sam Kury) and 10 USILA North Region honorees (Hutchings, Arnold, McCreary, Kury, Filtch, Fraterrigo, Sypek, Galimi, Nelson and Kevin Sheehan). Hutchings was also named the NE10 Player of the Year, while nine Dolphins earned NE10 All-Conference accolades (Hutchings, McCreary, Arnold, Kury, Filtch, Sypek, Fraterrigo, Galimi and Nelson) and Fraterrigo and Preston Taylor were named to the NE10 All-Rookie Team.
