Ohio State men’s lacrosse’s postseason run ends in 15-13 loss at Denver

Kaley Rentz
Mon, 18 May 2015 14:52:45 +0000
Lacrosse, Sports, featured, Jesse King, men's lacrosse, NCAA Tournament, Nick Myers, ohio state, Ohio State Buckeyes, osu

On Saturday, the Ohio State men’s lacrosse team ended its 2015 campaign with a loss to the No. 4 Denver Pioneers, 15-13, in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Inside the Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, the Buckeyes (12-7) took a quick 7-1 lead in the first 18 minutes of action. However, success for the Buckeyes wouldn’t last as Denver (15-2) struck back with nine unanswered goals to lead the Pioneers to their third consecutive NCAA semifinals.

Although the Buckeye attack had success early, DU goalie Ryan LaPlante made 13 saves to hold the Buckeye offense. But it was senior attacker Wesley Berg who would lead the Pioneers to victory, scoring six goals while contributing one assist.

OSU senior midfielder Jesse King was the main contributor for the Buckeyes, scoring three goals and handling three assists.

“It comes down to possessing the ball and that’s what we did a really good job of in the first quarter,” King said. “We were scoring on probably 50 percent of our possessions. Then you get unlucky and you don’t get a couple of ground balls that you want and Denver starts getting them, and that’s when things went wrong.”

King, along with 11 other seniors, will be leaving the Buckeyes after leading OSU into the new era of Big Ten lacrosse. The group had been a part of 32 wins over the last four years, leading the Buckeyes to two NCAA quarterfinal matchups.

The unseeded Buckeyes fell to 0-3 all-time in NCAA quarterfinals after previously losing in 2008 and 2013.