Box Score

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The No. 19 Fairfield University men's lacrosse team was one goal short of completing a fourth quarter comeback against Massachusetts in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship Semifinals on Friday evening at Rafferty Stadium. Tristan Sperry led the Stags with three goals and an assist as Fairfield was clipped by the Minutemen by a score of 9-8.

With the loss, CAA regular season champion Fairfield falls to 9-6. The Stags went 4-1 in their inaugural season of CAA action to earn the conference's top seed. Massachusetts improves to 5-9 and advances to play Towson in Saturday's CAA Championship Game at Rafferty Stadium.

Tonight's contest was the second one-goal meeting between the Stags and Minutemen. Fairfield won a 10-9 outing on April 4 in Amherst as a part of the CAA regular season slate. In total, Fairfield played a program-record nine one-goal games this spring, including all six of its losses and a string of five consecutive one-goal affairs dating back to April 4.

With his three goals and one assist, Sperry stands as the Stags' leading scorer with 47 total points (23g, team-high 24 assists). The 2015 First Team All-CAA honoree is ranked ninth in points (128), 10th in goals (74) and seventh in assists (54) in Fairfield history.

TJ Neubauer and Drew Federico each netted two goals, and Joe Rodrigues scored one. Jake Knostman doled out an assist to cap the Fairfield scoring effort.

In the midfield, Neubauer and freshman Tyler Murphy each scooped up five ground balls. CAA Rookie of the Year collected four ground balls as a part of his 13-of-19 day at the faceoff 'X'.

Goalkeeper Tyler Behring made eight saves for the Stags, while Tom Lukacovic and Max Buchanan aided the defensive effort with two caused turnovers apiece.

Massachusetts was led by a hat trick from Brendan Hegarty as well as three points from Nick Mariano.

The Stags led 2-0 after the first quarter courtesy of goals from Federico and Sperry. The shutout in the opening frame marked the seventh game this spring that saw the Fairfield defense record a scoreless quarter. The Minutemen struck twice in the second quarter with a Neubauer marker coming in-between the two goals for the visitors as the Stags took a 3-2 advantage into the intermission.

UMass had the first two goals of the second half, claiming its first lead of the day at 4-3. The advantage was short-lived as Neubauer answered with his team-leading 31st goal of the spring to knot the game at 4-4. However, the Minutemen struck back with the next three tallies of the day to build a 7-4 lead early in the fourth quarter.

After Rodrigues found the back of the net to cut the margin to 7-5, the Minutemen tacked on a pair to build a 9-5 cushion with 5:35 to play.

The Stags' final push began with 2:08 to play as Sperry converted a feed from Knostman to cut the deficit to 9-6. Sperry completed his hat trick just 45 seconds later, trimming the margin to 9-7 with 1:23 to go. After Fox won the ensuing faceoff, Federico's unassisted goal pulled the Stags all the way back to within one at 9-8 with 58 seconds remaining.

However, UMass came away with the next draw and ran out the clock on a 9-8 decision.

Fairfield outshot the Minutemen, 34-22, and held a 26-22 advantage in ground balls. The Stags won 13-of-21 draw controls and both teams committed 12 turnovers.

In addition to the CAA regular season crown, the Stags' 2015 season has seen the club enter the national rankings for the fourth consecutive season and knock off a nationally-ranked opponent (No. 20 Villanova on March 21) for the seventh season – a streak that spans the tenure of Head Coach Andy Copelan , the 2015 CAA Coach of the Year. 2015 also marks Fairfield's inaugural season playing on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium.