2016 CCIW Men's Lacrosse Tournament Website

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A big offensive second half propelled the Illinois Wesleyan men's lacrosse team to a 21-13 win over Augustana in the semifinals of the 2016 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Men's Lacrosse Tournament at Tucci Stadium on Wednesday, May 4.
 
The No. 2-seeded Titans, who won for the first time in their second CCIW tournament appearance, improved to 13-4 overall while the No. 3-seeded Vikings fell to 11-7.
 
Illinois Wesleyan will play in the tournament final against No. 1-seeded Carthage (9-9 overall) on Saturday at 2 p.m. on Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Red Men were 11-10 winners over No. 4-seed Elmhurst (6-10) on a goal with 12 seconds remaining. The championship game determines the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III postseason tournament.
 
The score was tied at 3-3 after the first quarter and IWU got eight second period tallies to forge an 11-7 lead at intermission. The Titans tacked on four third quarter goals and six more in the final stanza to seal the win.
 
Junior attacker Tim Smith had six goals while sophomore midfielder James Maibuecher added five goals and junior attacker Jacob Perry scored three times.
 
Sophomore midfielder Nick Winter had four assists while Maibuecher and Smith each had three and senior Robert Spenard had two assists to pace the Titans.
 
Junior goalkeeper Steven Laduzinsky made 12 saves in securing the win. Illinois Wesleyan collected 41 ground balls to 33 for the Vikings and IWU won 20 of 36 faceoffs with freshman J.C. Grabarek successful on 13 of 22.
 
Augustana, who was the defending CCIW tournament champion, got six goals in the game from Alexander Crescenti.