ROCHESTER, NY – The top-ranked RIT men's lacrosse team (21-0) used a 12-2 run in the second half and 14-2 burst over the final 38:40 en route to an 18-7 win over No. 10 SUNY Cortland (16-5) in the quarterfinals of the 2015 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship on Wednesday. The Tigers advance to the semifinals for the third straight season and will face defending national champion Tufts University in the semifinals on Sunday, May 17. RIT set a school record by winning its 21st straight game and is 41-1 over the last two seasons.

Senior Eddie Kiesa (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) tied career highs with six goals and eight points, while junior Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport) scored a career-high five goals. Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy) scored three goals, while Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) had two goals and two assists.

"We had chances early, but their goalie made some good saves in the first half," said RIT head coach Jake Coon. "We stuck to our game plan, loosened up a bit, and started clicking offensively."

The Tigers now have 381 goals this season, a school record. RIT leads all of Division III in scoring this season, averaging 18.2 goals per game. It was the 14th time in 21 games that RIT scored at least 18 goals. The Tigers have four different 40 goal scorers and six with least 34.

Shots were 51-23 in favor of RIT, while the Tigers won the ground ball battle, 47-27. RIT won 18-of-29 face-offs, while the Tigers were 15-of-15 on clears. The Tigers went 1-for-1 on their lone man-up chance, and stopped the Red Dragons on their only chance, while scoring a man-down goal.

Junior long-stick midfielder Matt Hossack (Port Perry, Ontario/Port Perry) dished out a pair of assists, won a career-high 17-of-26 face-offs, grabbed a personal best 15 ground balls and caused two turnovers for the Tigers. He did a tremendous job neutralizing Cortland face-off specialist Pat Baldwin, who came into the game fourth nationally having won 68.5 percent of his face-offs taken. Baldwin was held to 10 face-off wins in 21 attempts today. Jay Krzyston (Bedford, NH/Bishop Guertin) and Hossack each caused two turnovers for the Tigers and Brad Gillies (Oakville, Ontario/St. Thomas Aquinas) grabbed five ground balls.

"Matt is a wonderful player," said Coon of Hossack. "He is a ground ball machine and hustles all game long. He is a coach's dream and does everything asked of him."

Pat Johnston (Norwell, MA/Norwell) got the win in net for RIT, making 10 saves. He is now 56-4 in his career at RIT, including a 21-0 mark this season.

The Red Dragons led 2-1 after one quarter and 5-4 with 8:42 left in the second quarter before the Tigers took over. RIT would score the final two goals of the opening half, nine seconds apart to lead 6-5 at the break and extended the lead to 9-5 midway through the third quarter before Cortland would score its final two goals of the game to make it 9-7. RIT would respond by hold Cortland scoreless over the final 20:15 and score eight unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to pull away.

Cortland struck first when Matt Rakoczy took a feed from Zach Hopps and beat Johnston at the 13:12 mark of the first quarter, giving the Red Dragons an early lead. Levick tied the score with 4:01 to play in the quarter when he swept home a loose ball in front of the Cortland goal. Hopps gave the Red Dragons a 2-1 lead with 1:30 to play in the first quarter.

Sterzin opened the second quarter scoring with the first of his five goals, tying the score at 2-2 off an assist from Allister Warren (Toronto, Ontario/Malvern Collegiate Institute). Billy Davis gave Cortland a 3-2 lead on his unassisted goal at the 13:24 mark of the second quarter.

Consecutive goals from Sterzin and Lee gave RIT its first lead of the game. After a pair of Cortland goals gave them back a 5-4 lead, the Tigers ended the half with two straight goals, taking a 6-5 lead into halftime on Levick's second goal of the half off an assist from Hossack off a face-off win.

The Tigers kept the momentum going in the third quarter, as Sterzin tallied the first two goals of the quarter, extending RIT's lead top 8-5 at the 10:20 mark of the third quarter. Kiesa made it 9-5 RIT with his goal off a feed from Lee with 7:31 to play.

The Red Dragons answered with two straight goals, pulling to within 9-7 on a goal from Hopps with 5:125 to play in the third. Sterzin rounded out the scoring in the third quarter with his goal with 1:18 to play in the quarter, giving RIT a 10-7 lead.

RIT exploded for eight goals in the fourth quarter, including five from Kiesa, all in a span of 5:21. Lee and Levick also scored for the Tigers in the fourth. RIT's defense was excellent all game long, but especially in the second half, holding the Red Dragons to just two goals.

This is RIT's 17th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and sixth in as many years. Overall, RIT is now 19-16 all time in NCAA Tournament games, and will compete in the national semifinals for the eighth time in program history, third straight season, and fourth time in the last five years (1984, 1985, 1987, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015). RIT will look to advance to its second championship game in program history. Since Coon took over in 2010, RIT is 13-5 in NCAA Tournament play and 109-14 overall.

Cortland is 20-17 all-time versus RIT. The Tigers have won four straight over the Red Dragons dating back to the 2013 NCAA Tournament. On March 11, RIT defeated SUNY Cortland 12-11 at the Carrier Dome on the campus of Syracuse University. Lee scored three goals for RIT, while Brad Gillies (Oakville, Ontario/St. Thomas Aquinas) dished out six assists. RIT is 2-2 all-time against the Red Dragons in NCAA Tournament play, also having defeated the Red Dragons, 10-9 in overtime in the 2013 NCAA National Semifinal.

RIT will face Tufts in a rematch of last year's national semifinals that Tufts won, 21-11. That game will take place on Sunday, May 17 at Tiger Stadium. Stay tuned to www.ritathletics.com for game time.