DENVER– The [RV/20] University of Denver men’s lacrosse team tied it late in regulation, but fell to Villanova in overtime 10-9 in both teams’ BIG EAST opener on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
SIGNIFICANT STATS:
Noah Manning had a team-high four points on three goals and a helper.
Mic Kelly had three points on two goals and an assist.
Cody Malawsky had a career-high three assists.
Marek Tzagournis was Denver’s other multi-goal scorer with a pair.
Malcolm Kleban finished with 15 saves for the second time this season, equaling his output at Yale earlier this month. Kleban made seven stops in the fourth quarter.
Villanova won 17 of the 23 faceoffs, including the overtime draw.
The Wildcats forced eight Denver failed clears.
Photo Gallery: DU vs Villanova 3/29/25
Malcolm Kleban finished with double digit saves for the fifth time this season and the 18th time in his career.
Noah Manning finished with his fourth hat trick of the season and the 12th of his career.HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Denver opened the scoring with a Marek Tzagournis tally off a feed from Noah Manning. After a Villanova leveler, the Pioneers got back-to-back goals from Mic Kelly and a man-up strike from Daniel Clark to take a 3-1 lead with 8:08 to play in the opening quarter.Villanova got the final goal of the period with 60 seconds left to make it a 3-2 Denver lead at the first break.Second Quarter:
The Wildcats got the first two of the second quarter to make it a 3-0 Nova run and give the Wildcats their first lead at 4-3 with 11:30 to go.
Manning scored in transition off a feed from LSM Russell Overly to tie things at 4-4 and then Manning scored at the end of Denver’s second man-up chance off a pass from fellow attackman Cody Malawsky to send Denver into the locker room with a 5-4 lead.
Nova went into the locker room with a 7-4 advantage in saves, but Denver turned it over just five times in the first half while forcing nine Villanova miscues.
Third Quarter:
Defense was the story of the opening nine minutes of the third quarter before Lukas Klokiw hit Tzagournis just above GLE and Tzagournis went low-to-high just under the bar to give Denver its first two goal lead since it was 3-1 with 8:08 to go in the first.
Villanova scored the final two of the quarter with 2:14 and :04 left to send the game to the fourth tied at 6-6.
Fourth Quarter:
Malawsky went down to his butt to rescue a bad pass, got the ball to Kelly and Kelly buried his second of the day to put Denver back in-front at 7-6 with 10:58 to play before the game went into a lightning delay.
Following the lightning delay, Villanova scored the first two goals to take an 8-7 advantage. Denver was then called for a two-minute non-releasable penalty which the Wildcats were able to score one on to make it 9-7 with 5:28 to go.
After killing the rest of the penalty, Manning completed his hat trick on a feed from Kelly to make it a 9-8 game with 3:26 to go and then Chris Caldwell picked up a ground ball and shot a no-look frozen rope on the ground to beat the Villanova keeper with 1:37 left to play.
Denver held for the last shot, but wasn’t able to get a clean look at the target, and sent it to overtime at 9-9.
Overtime:
Villanova won the faceoff of the extra session and Colin Michener got underneath his defender to find the back of the net and win the game for the visitors.
UP NEXT:
Denver will head to St. John’s next weekend for its BIG EAST road opener. The game is scheduled to faceoff at 12 p.m. ET/10 a.m. MT.