ROCHESTER, NY – For the fifth straight season, the RIT men's lacrosse team are Liberty League champions. The top-seeded Tigers defeated third seed Rensselaer 15-5 on Sunday afternoon in the Liberty League Men's Lacrosse Championship from Tiger Stadium. Senior long-stick midfielder Matt Hossack (Port Perry, Ontario/Port Perry) was named Tournament Most Valuable Player, tallying six points on two goals and four assists, grabbing 18 ground balls, and grabbing four ground balls in two tournament games this weekend.

The Tigers qualify for their seventh straight NCAA Tournament and 18th overall in program history. RIT awaits its opponent in a first round game. The field will be announced this evening at 9 p.m. Fans can view the selection show online.

"I am really proud of our effort today," said RIT head coach Jake Coon. "It was a balanced win for us. Our offense buried their shots, defense was strong, had good goalie play and we did a great job on face-offs."

RIT held a 39-33 shot advantage, and won the ground ball battle 42-23. The Tigers won 13-of-23 face-offs and went 18-of-21 on clearing attempts.

Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy), Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport), and Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) led the Tigers offense, combining for 20 points. Levick tallied a career-high seven goals to go along with an assist, while Sterzin finished with six points on three goals and three assists. Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) tallied a goal and dished out a career-high five assists. Brendan MacDonald (Georgetown, ON/Trinity-Pawling), Braden Wallace (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park), Dave Shuster (Columbus, OH/St. Charles Prep), and Alec Sulesky (Medina, OH/Medina) each scored a goal.

Steven Ricci (Rochester, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) won 12-of-19 draws, and grabbed five ground balls. Hossack led RIT with nine ground balls, while Dan LoBosco (South Salem, NY/John Jay), Patrick Hannigan (Hanover, MA/Hanover), Jakob Krzyston (Bedford, NH/Bishop Guertin) and Josh Harris (St. Catharines, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) each caused two turnovers. Nick Nesbitt (Burlington, Ontario/Salisbuury School) improved to 9-0 on the season in net for RIT, making seven saves.

JT Kelly led Rensselaer with two goals, while Jake Weidner and Matt Hall each scored a goal. John Phillips led RPI with four ground balls, while Blake Frasca caused five turnovers. David Gibbs took the loss in net, making 10 saves.

Today's title is the fifth straight Liberty League championship for RIT since joining the league in 2012, and seventh straight league championship, including Empire 8 titles in 2010 and 2011.

RIT led 5-1 after the first quarter, and 10-2 at halftime. The Tigers scored two more goals in the third quarter, and three in the fourth. RIT's defense held the Engineers to three goals in the second half.

Kelly gave RPI an early lead when he scored a man-up goal off an assist from Matt Hall at the 12:25 mark of the opening quarter. RIT scored the next five goals of the quarter to lead 5-1. Sterzin scored the first two goals and tallied later in the quarter, while Levick and Sulesky also scored.

RIT kept the momentum going into the second quarter, tallying four straight goals. Lee tallied his 59th of the season off LoBosco to make it 6-1 RIT at the 12:57 mark of the quarter. Levick tallied his second of the game off an assist from Sterzin to make it 7-1. Wallace and Shuster tacked on goals to give the Tigers a 9-1 lead.

Weidner broke the nine-goal run by RIT with his unassisted goal with 2:27 to play in the half to cut the RIT lead to 9-2. Levick tacked on a late goal to give the Tigers a 10-2 halftime lead.

Levick opened the second-half scoring with two straight goals, increasing the RIT lead to 12-2 on his second goal of the quarter with 1:47 to play. Fettig scored RPI's lone goal with 37 seconds to play. Levick added two more goals in the fourth quarter and MacDonald scored to make it a 15-5 final.

The Tigers improve to 25-6 all time versus RPI.