The VMI lacrosse team earned a dominant 21-5 victory over visiting Hampton University for a big win on Senior Day at Drill Field No. 2.
With VMI’s second league win of the season and Mercer’s loss to Jacksonville today, the Keydets (4-9, 2-2) will qualify as the No. 4 seed at the SoCon Tournament in two weeks at High Point University, marking just the second time in program history the Keydets will compete in the postseason and first since 2008.
Freshman attack Luke Mryncza logged eight points in the win on four goals and four assists, which is third most in program history (most for a freshman) for points in a single game.
The graduating senior class, which consists of Josh Bass, Michael Santos, Aidan Riley, Alexander Rodriguez, Trejan Cannon, Jack Burke, David Foster and Mike Tulskie, won their ninth career game at VMI, marking the most wins for a class since 2014.
“I’m happy with our effort today as it was a total team effort,” said VMI head coach James Purpura. “It was a great way to honor our first-class cadets with a win on senior day. We are one of the youngest teams in college lacrosse, but our senior class has done a great job leading and I’m happy they were rewarded for their efforts.
“We were a little slow out of the gate, but our defense played outstanding and gave our team confidence. We started to finish shots and had a ton of possession time today thanks to our riding and clearing and our face-off crew. We had eleven different goal scorers led two of our freshmen in Luke Mryncza and Luke Rusterucci. We still have a lot to work on but I’m happy with our continued development.”
The Keydets were dominant on the offensive side of the field and took 83 shot attempts on the day to Hampton’s 21. VMI also showed hustle by picking up 49 groundballs to Hampton’s 25 and forced 23 Hampton turnovers.
VMI won 19 of 30 faceoffs and went a perfect 21-21 on clearing opportunities. The Keydets also held Hampton to 0-2 on extra-man scoring opportunities.
Mryncza led the Keydets with four goals on the day followed by Rusterucci’s three. Scout Ripley, Josh Bass, AJ Stamos, Alex Baber, and Aidan Riley also logged two goals apiece.
Five separate Pirates scored goals for Hampton during the contest. Hampton senior goalie Paxtin Powell logged 20 saves in the loss.
The Keydets finish the regular season next Saturday at nationally ranked Richmond before the SoCon Tournament, which is slated for May 5-7 in High Point, North Carolina.
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