ROCHESTER, NY – The top-seeded RIT men's lacrosse team (16-1) advanced to the 2016 Liberty League Men's Lacrosse Championship with a 21-9 win over Union (9-7) in the semifinals from Tiger Stadium Friday afternoon. The Tigers advance to the title game for the fifth straight season and will face No. 3 seed Rensselaer (13-3) in the championship game on Sunday at noon. Sunday's winner earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament.

RIT held a 56-38 shot advantage, and won the ground ball battle 49-28. The Tigers won 19-of-34 face-offs and were a perfect 22-of-22 on clearing attempts.

Matt Hossack (Port Perry, Ontario/Port Perry) led RIT on both ends of the field. The senior long-stick midfielder finished with a game-high five points on two goals and three assists. He won 7-of-9 faceoffs, grabbed nine ground balls and caused two turnovers.

Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) scored four goals, while Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport), Braden Wallace (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park) and Jay Vakiener (Fairport, NY/Fairport) each tallied a pair of goals for the Tigers offense that featured 14 different goal scorers. Brandon Buscaglia (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) tallied his first collegiate goal for the Tigers. Vakiener added a pair of assists. Lee now has 58 goals this season to lead RIT, just two shy of his career-high of 60, set last season.

Steven Ricci (Rochester, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) won six draws, and grabbed a pair of ground balls. JD Hall (Centennial, CO/Arapahoe) caused two turnovers while Jakob Krzyston (Bedford, NH/Bishop Guertin), Josh Harris (St. Catharines, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) and Patrick Hannigan (Hanover, MA/Hanover) combined to grab seven ground balls and cause three turnovers. Nick Nesbitt (Burlington, Ontario/Salisbuury School) got the win in net for RIT, making 14 saves.

Daniel Kycia led Union with two goals and two assists. Nolan Stauffer added a goal and two assists, while Thomas Stanton, Sean Hanley, John Edmonds and Sean Pensavalle each scored a goal. Cole Gendels was solid in net for the Dutchmen, making 17 saves, including 12 in the first quarter.

RIT opened the scoring when Lee scored off an assist from Hossack at the 12:36 mark of the opening quarter. Hanley tied the game with his goal at 9:06 off an assist from Kycia. Sterzin scored off a feed from Alex Sulesky at the 7:55 mark of the first quarter, but Union answered right back when Stauffer scored from Lance Lonegan Jr at the 6:57 mark to tie the score at 2-2.

RIT got a little cushion towards the end of the first quarter, when Lee and Hossack scored consecutive goals for the Tigers, giving RIT a 4-2 lead. Richardson scored for Union late to make it 4-3 RIT after the first quarter. The Tigers fired 16 shots on goal in the first quarter, but Gendels was in the zone, making some spectacular stops, including two stuff in attempts on Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy) from just outside the crease.

The Dutchmen tallied the first goal of the second quarter tying the game at 4-4 on Pensavalle's goal off an assist from Kycia at the 9:51 mark. Two straight markers from Lee and Sterzin just 10 seconds apart gave the Tigers a two-goal cushion.

After a Stanton goal made it 6-5 RIT, the Tigers closed out the second quarter scoring five straight goals to take an 11-5 lead into the half. Dan LoBosco (South Salem, NY/John Jay), Hossack, Lee and Wallace all scored in that stretch. Wallace scored two straight to end the half to give the Tigers a six-goal lead.

The Tigers slowly pulled away in the second half, out scoring Union 4-2 in the third quarter, and 6-2 in the fourth. Sulesky, Dave Shuster (Columbus, OH/St. Charles Prep), Vakiener, Zack Thompson (Orangeville, Ontario/Culver Academy), Buscaglia, Drew Tosaya (Kenmore, WA/Inglemoor), Brendan MacDonald (Georgetown, ON/Trinity-Pawling), Cam Isaac (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) and Shawn Nally (Rochester, NY/McQuaid) all scored in the second half for RIT. Buscaglia's goal to open the fourth quarter was his first in a RIT uniform.

RIT is 18-3 all time against Union, including a pair of wins over the Dutchmen this season. The Tigers have scored at least 20 goals in four straight games for the first time in program history.

RIT defeated Sunday's opponent, Rensselaer, 12-8 on March 12 in Troy, N.Y.