PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The No. 2 seed High Point University men's lacrosse team played in the 2025 Atlantic 10 Championships on Saturday afternoon against No. 1 seed University of Richmond. Playing in the Championships for the second time in the past three seasons, the Panthers' season came to an end after falling to the Spiders 16-10 at Sweeney field.
Four Panthers had a multi-goal game as
Ryan Hynes led the day with four points from two goals and two assists.
Site: Sweeney Field
Score: No. 2 seed High Point 14, No. 1 seed Richmond 16
Records: High Point (7-9, 3-2), Richmond (13-3, 5-0)
High Point was fired up in the opening minutes of the game, scoring the first two goals back-to-back around the 11-minute mark. Hynes tagged the first on a turnaround shot followed by
Jeb Brenfleck who rounded the front of the circle and scored on a pass from
Justin Wixted.
In goal,
Zack Overend was steady in the first quarter, picking up three saves including a double save sequence from his knees at the seven-minute mark.
At the three-minute mark in the first quarter, the Spiders found the back of the net for their first goal of the game which sparked a three-goal run to give Richmond the 3-2 lead before the end of the quarter.
High Point's
Carson Robins evened the score in less than two minutes into the second quarter with an assist from Wixted. Richmond strung together another three-goal sequence to take its largest lead of the game 6-3 with 10 minutes to go in the first half.
During HPU's man-down situation at the 2:49 mark in the second quarter,
Caio Stephens forced a turnover on the Spiders and transitioned to an
Owen Bunten goal with an assist from
Ian Cann. Bunten's goal set the program record for the most goals scored by a rookie in program history, surpassing
Brayden Mayea's 37 goals during the 2021 season. Bunten finished the game with two goals for a season total 39.
Robins kept High Point's momentum going with a goal off the faceoff win from
Luca Accardo to cut the game back to within one-point, 6-5 with one minute left in the first half. After winning the next faceoff, the Panthers turned the ball over and allowed the Spiders to score a goal with six seconds left on the clock, giving the Spiders a 7-5 lead at the break.
Doing what the Panthers do best when coming out of the half, High Point scored first to bring it back to a one-point game. Richmond answered to go back up 8-6 but HPU kept putting it on the Spiders defense and trailed by one for a third time, 8-7 at the 7:54 mark.
Accardo won the next faceoff but High Point was unable to convert with a chance to tie the game. Richmond took advantage and scored three straight goals before the end of the third quarter to lead 11-7 going into the final minutes of the game.
In the fourth quarter, Richmond outscored High Point 5-3 making it too large of a gap for the Panthers to close before the time ran out. Bunten scored his second goal of the game at the 10:15 mark to make it 13-8.
Isiah Moran-Weekes scored his first goal of the game at the 1:31 mark to make it 16-9 and Brenfleck scored the last goal of the game to make it 16-10 in the end.
The Panthers first season under first-time head coach
John Crawley came to a close at the 2025 Atlantic 10 Championships after going 7-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play. Crawley led High Point to its highest regular season finish in A10 play since joining the A10 in 2023 as the runner-up.
#GoHPU x #A10MLAX
