Grand Rapids, Michigan - This afternoon, the men's lacrosse team competed in an opening matchup of the WHAC Lacrosse Tournament against the Madonna Crusaders. The Saints handled business in the matchup with a 12-5 victory and continue marching on to the conference semifinals on Thursday.
 
The final home game of the year got started with a score from number 17 Hunter Roberts. The ball entered the net at 9:48 for the first game of the contest. Nico Kittredge scored the second goal of the period at 2:43 to put the Saints up 2-0. This was his 11th of the season. Despite outshooting AQ 10-9 in the period, the Crusaders were unable to score in the first.
 
AQ started the second period hot when Mitch Haggart lasered a shot into the back of the net at 14:47. This came on an assist from Zachary Sweet. Shortly after at 13:05, Dean Cooper scored his first of the contest on a pass from Jack Rioux. Aquinas would continue to pass the ball around until Alex Rolands scored at 12:01. Madonna finally got on the board at 8:22 and then had a man up goal at 2:44. Sweet then scored his first of three at 2:10 on an assist from Jon Jardis. This would be the first of many times the Sweet-Jardis connection would come in to affect today. Madonna would score once more in the period as the two teams headed to the half with a 6-3 Aquinas lead.
 
The third quarter would be controlled by the Saints as AQ had four goals to the Crusaders one. The first came from Brady Waling at 11:33. Next Jon Jardis scored roughly a minute later at 10:29. Jardis then assisted on another Cooper goal at 5:13.  After a man up goal by Madonna, Zachary Sweet scored with seven seconds left in the quarter.
 
Sweet and Jardis kept the connection open with a quick goal at 14:38. Jardis quickly scored again at 14:24 on an assist from Kevin LaHaie for the final AQ goal of the game. One more Madonna goal before the end of the game happened at 6:40 as AQ walked away with the 12-5 victory.
 
Clayton Boerigter played most of the game in net for AQ recording 15 saves. He would also notch a ground ball and caused turnover. Sweet had three goals and five points in the contest and Jardis had six points with four assists. Haggart, Jardis, and Reed Chastain all recorded four ground balls, while Jack Rioux had two caused turnovers.
 
AQ advances to the semifinal matchup against the Concordia Cardinals on Thursday, April 27. The matchup against the fourth nationally ranked team takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan at 4:00 PM.