Site: High Point, N.C.
Score: High Point 11, Richmond 12
Records: High Point (7-8, 2-3), Richmond (10-4, 4-1)
HIGH POINT, N.C. — The High Point University men’s lacrosse team fell to the Richmond Spiders in the SoCon semifinals at Vert Stadium on Thursday night (May 5th) by a score of 12-11. Asher Nolting led HPU in goals with three on the night. Brayden Mayea led the way in points for the Panthers with two goals and three assists on the night.
Coach Jon Torpey: “Proud of the fight our guys displayed tonight. Words can’t express how special this senior class was. We are going to miss them immensely.”
Panther Particulars
Hunter Vines got the Panthers on the board first as he beat his defender and slipped the ball in the top corner past the Richmond goalie.
Richmond evened the game on a man-down opportunity to tie it at one.
Jack Vanoverbeke put HPU back on top with an unassisted goal halfway through the first quarter.
The Spiders evened the game at two on a man-up opportunity with 4:14 left in the first quarter. They added one more goal 30 seconds later to take a 3-2 lead. Richmond scored one more before the first quarter came to a close.
Asher Nolting put a stop to the Spider scoring run with an over-the-top finish over his defender in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
Colin Cooke evened the game at four just 40 seconds later.
The Panthers kept the pressure on as Vanoverbeke scored his second goal of the night in transition to give HPU a 5-4 lead.
Nolting scored his second of the night off of a Richmond turnover to double the Panther lead, 6-4.
Richmond found one back to cut the HPU lead in half with 8:28 left in the second quarter. They evened the game at six just a minute later.
Mayea put the Panthers back on top when he was at the face of the goal to put away a rebound from a Vines shot.
The Spiders tied the game at seven with 48 seconds remaining in the half. The teams entered the halftime break deadlocked at seven.
Mayea connected with Nolting to regain the lead for HPU in the opening three minutes of play in the third quarter.
Richmond tied the game at eight on a man-up opportunity.
The back and forth battle continued in the third quarter as Nick Murphy put the Panthers back on top in a man-up opportunity in the final four minutes of the third quarter.
The Spiders evened the game at nine on a man-up opportunity. They took a 10-9 lead in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
Mayea connected with Koby Russell as he scored his first of the day to tie the game at 10.
Richmond regained the lead with 9:06 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Jack Sawyer found Mayea for his second goal of the night to tie the game at 11 with 3:46 left.
Richmond took a 12-11 lead with 1:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Spiders held on to win 12-11.
The Spider win brings an end to the 2022 campaign for HPU as well as the legendary Panther career of Asher Nolting. Nolting finishes with the ninth most points in the history of collegiate lacrosse with 344 points.