Hickory, NC - Lincoln Memorial men's lacrosse concludes the 2026 season in the SAC Tournament Quarterfinals, falling to the #3 seed Lenoir-Rhyne Bears 9-24.

The Bears came out dominating on the offensive end in the first quarter as they went on a 7-0 scoring run in the first ten minutes. LMU's Alex Wegrzyn scored the first goal for the Railsplitters at the 2:39 mark. With Lenoir-Rhyne adding a pair of goals before the end of the quarter, the LMU went into quarter two falling 1-9.

The second was all Lenoir-Rhyne, as they extended the lead by 11 goals and didn't allow Lincoln Memorial to score, giving them the 1-20 advantage going into halftime.

The Railsplitters opened the second half with more momentum, as they scored the first goal of the third quarter with 13:34 remaining, as Alex Winters finished off of a Domenico Moscato pass. After L-R recorded back-to-back goals throughout the next three minutes, LMU's Gavin Reid scored their second goal of the quarter at the 6:30 mark, unassisted. A minute later, the Bears added a goal, but Lincoln Memorial responded two minutes later as Dakota Ayres found Winters for a goal with 3:02 remaining to end the quarter, making the score 4-23 going into the final frame with Lenoir-Rhyne in the lead.

Quarter four was the highest scoring quarter for LMU, as they went on a 5-goal scoring stretch. Gavin Reid started the run with 13:56 remaining, unassisted, then Connor Blondin put the ball in the back of the net at the 12:57 mark. Winters followed at the 9:07 mark as he scored off of Jenson Jones, and Ernie Plass recorded an unassisted goal with 7:20 remaining. Ayres rounded out the run with a goal at the 6:43 mark. Despite Lincoln Memorial only allowing L-R to score one goal in the fourth at 5:01 remaining, the Railsplitters fall to Lenoir-Rhyne 9-14.

Winters led in points with three points for three goals. Reid and Ayres followed with two points each, with Reid scoring two goals and Ayres tallying a goal and an assist. Moscato, and Jones finished with one point for one assist, and Blondin, Wegrzyn, and Plass each  finished with a goal.

Reid led the team with five shots, and Reid and Winters led with three shots on goal. Three different Railsplitters led in ground balls with three, and Mark Alarcon recorded team-high three caused turnovers.  Three goalkeepers earned time in goal, with Pablo Irizarry recording ten saves, Jayden Herman getting six saves, and Connor Fitzgibbon recording two.

As a team, Lincoln Memorial took 23 shots, with 13 being on goal, 20 ground balls, 18 saves, 15 successful clears, and six won face offs.

With the loss, Lincoln Memorial drops to 8-9 overall, and Lenoir-Rhyne improves to 12-3 overall.

LMU men's lacrosse ends the 2026 season in the SAC Quarterfinals, marking the program's first tournament appearance since 2023.  The team finishes their season with a  8-8 overall record, including 6-2 at home.