The #6 ranked men's lacrosse team began play in the NAIA National Tournament today as they took on the #3 fighting bees from St. Ambrose. Aquinas played against St. Ambrose earlier this season suffering defeat, but this high stakes matchup would see a different result as AQ won the matchup by a score of 10-5. Big performances from Clayton Boerigter, Mitch Haggart, and the entire defense advanced the Saints to tomorrow's semifinal matchup.
 
The Saints got off to a hot start in the game with Joey Fitzgerald being the first athlete to find the back of the net. He did so unassisted at 9:17 in the first. Then Mitch Haggart would have two consecutive goals to put the Saints up 3-0. These were scored at 5:24 and at 3:46 when he was assisted by Zachary Sweet to end the scoring in the quarter.
 
In the second, St. Ambrose got on the board with their first goal at 8:59. Then, within the last thirty-one seconds of the half, Blake Baker and Haggart were able to each score putting the Saints up 5-1 going into the half.
 
To start the second half both teams had ample amounts of scoring. Alex Rolands got the Saints on the board quickly at 14:32. One goal from St. Ambrose would come next before Joey Fitzgerald scored a man up goal at 11:33. Then Haggart had another goal at 8:44 when he was was assisted by Kevin LaHaie. Each team would score once more in the period, with AQ's coming from Jon Jardis at 3:27.
 
In the final quarter St. Ambrose outscored Aquinas 2-1, with AQ's goal coming from Jardis at 5:12, but incredible defense lead the Saints to the regulation victory.
 
In today's contest, Clayton Boerigter faced 26 on goal shots and was able to save an outstanding 21 of those shots. He also recorded three ground balls on the day.
 
Saint Ambrose record more shots(43-37), ground balls (35-25), and faceoffs (14-4) while AQ had more save (21-16) and clears percentage (94%-79%) while holding it down on the defensive end.
 
The Saints will next play against Reinhardt in a semi-final matchup at 7:00 PM CST tomorrow. The winner of the contest will advance to the national championship game on Saturday, May 14.