ST. LOUIS—[BOX SCORE] No. 9 Missouri Baptist Men's Lacrosse used a balanced attack and a big game from goalkeeper Robert Ates to upset No. 4 Indiana Tech 16-8 on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans improved to 7-4 on the season and solidified their case for a bid to the NAIA National Invitational.
Head Coach Andy Joly made a point to his team to jump on the visiting Warriors early and the Spartans did just that. Sean Hess got the scoring started a little over a minute in. Josh Zion and Dan Mollet followed to give MBU a 3-0 lead at 7:45 of the first quarter.
Indiana Tech briefly made it 3-1 but that would equal their smallest deficit of the day. Missouri Baptist reeled off five in a row to break the game wide open. The Spartans took a commanding 8-2 lead into the halftime break.
The Warriors made a strong push in the second half but goalkeeper Robert Ates was up for the challenge. The sophomore tied his season-high with 17 saves. Indiana Tech entered Saturday's match as the No. 1 ranked offense in the NAIA, averaging nearly 18 goals per game.
The visitors narrowed the lead to 11-6 early in the fourth quarter but MBU struck three times in three minutes to put it out of reach for good.
Freshman Sean Hess led the way with four goals on the day for the Spartans. Austin Dahl registered three times to set a new career-high. The junior now has 33 goals on the season.
Devin Mayer, Dan Mollet, and Josh Zion all netted two apiece. Ben Eder, Tim Borroff, and Alex Todd also found the scoresheet as the Spartans set a new season-high for goals in a game with 16.
Afterwards, Head Coach Andy Joly spoke about the importance of the win:
"This was the overall performance that coach Keel and I have been waiting for. You need to play a solid 60 minutes to beat a team like Indiana Tech. With key players back from injury we were able to accomplish that," Joly said. "And it's perfect timing to get a signature win like this. Hopefully, the voters will take notice."
The Spartans were ranked No. 9 in the NAIA Coaches' poll entering Saturday. With a signature win now under their belt, MBU will have a chance to move up and potentially secure an automatic bid to the National Invitational next month in Greenville, S.C.
The Spartans' next action will be their final game of the regular season. They travel to Lindenwood-Belleville on April 21. First faceoff is set for 7pm.
