Adelphi men's lacrosse team defeats Saint Anselm to advance to NCAA Division II championship game

Nineteen seventy-nine. Nineteen eighty-one. Nineteen ninety-three. Nineteen ninety-five. Nineteen ninety-eight. Nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand one.

Those are Adelphi men’s lacrosse forever teams, the ones whose seasons culminated with national championships. The ones whose exploits grow larger with each telling.

The 2024 edition has an opportunity to join its seven hallowed predecessors, which was always the goal.

“I would say, especially at a school like this, like Adelphi [that has] such a historic lacrosse program, it’s one of those things that’s kind of expected,” goaltender Dylan Renner said after top-seeded Adelphi outlasted third-seeded Saint Anselm, 12-9, in a Division II national semifinal at Motamed Field on Sunday afternoon.

Renner, who was named the 2024 USILA Division II North Region Player of the Year on Friday, stopped 17 of 26 shots. Logan Turner and Brandon Donnellan recorded hat tricks. Eamon Hall and Brian Harinski scored two goals apiece and Kyle Lewis and Kyle Steinbach added one each.

Adelphi (16-2) reached the national championship game for the first time since 2011. The Panthers will meet Lenoir-Rhyne next Sunday in the title game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Lenoir-Rhyne defeated Tampa, 15-14, in the other semifinal,

“I believe we can win this game,” coach Gordon Purdie said. “It’s going to be big time.”

In order to qualify for the final, the Panthers needed to outlast a team that they have historically used as a heavy bag. Entering the game, Adelphi was 18-0 against Saint Anselm, including two wins earlier this season.

The Panthers beat the Hawks, 8-7, on April 20 in the regular season and earned a 10-9 victory in the Northeast-10 championship game on May 4.

All three games were contested at Motamed Field.

“Earning the one seed was truly a great help for us,” Purdie said. “Everything got to be done at home: Sleeping in our beds, [waking] up; it’s just really a process of being ready. And I think playing at home gave us the opportunity just to be that little bit more prepared.”

Which paid dividends in the fourth quarter when a desperate Hawks team attempted to rally from a 10-4 deficit. Although St. Anselm scored five times in the quarter, Renner made six of his 17 saves.

The Hawks were able to cut the deficit to 11-9 with 3:06 left on Colin Mulvey’s 29th goal of the season, but Donnellan’s unassisted goal with 1:32 remaining ended the scoring.

“They got a guy in the cage that makes a huge difference for them,” Saint Anselm coach Michael Sciamanna said of Renner. “If he’s not the player of the year in the country, I don’t know who is.”

While Renner shined in the fourth quarter, his teammates did yeoman’s work in the first three quarters to build an insurmountable lead.

“We wanted a fast start and we wanted to go fast all game,” Tucker said. “We let up a little bit, but that’s something we’re [going] to get working on [for] next week.”

When they have a chance to join the program’s pantheon of legendary teams.