GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Illinois Wesleyan men's lacrosse team was eliminated from the NCAA Division III men's lacrosse championships on Saturday, May 13, following a 25-11 loss in the Sweet Sixteen to fifth-ranked Denison University. In his final game donning Titan green, senior Michael Julius led the team with five points on four goals and one assist.
 
With a loss, the Titans conclude their season with a program-best 16-4 record. The 16 wins is the most in single-season history for the four-year old program while four losses are the fewest in program history to date.
 
Denison opened the game with five unanswered goals, with four coming in the first five minutes of action. Junior Nick Winter started the scoring for IWU with a goal at the 7:26 mark, off an assist from sophomore Will Rossi. At the end of one quarter, the Titans trailed 8-1.
 
Julius took over offensively for Illinois Wesleyan in the second quarter, recording four of his five points in the period. Senior Jacob Perry and Rossi also scored in the quarter. Julius scored twice in the final two minutes of the half to cut the Titans deficit to eight as the team trailed 14-6 at halftime.
 
Winter struck first in the second-half for his second goal of the evening. From then on out things went in Denison's way however. Two late IWU penalties allowed for the Big Red to score a pair of man-up goals giving Denison an 18-7 lead heading into the fourth.
 
Senior's Tim Smith, Evan Mok-Lamme, and sophomore Bailey Marth each scored in the fourth quarter in addition to Julius. With 17 seconds left in the contest Julius connected for the 196th and final goal of his career by way of Winter. Winter finished the contest with two assists.

Sophomore J.C. Grabarek led the Titans with six ground balls and won 19-of-40 face-off attempts (.475). Freshman Joe Hynes was credited with the lone caused turnover of the day for IWU. In goal, senior Steven Laduzinsky made 15 saves on 61 shots faced.

Denison outshot the Titans 61-28 on Saturday which includes a 40-18 advantage on shots on goal. The Big Red committed just 13 turnovers in comparison to 29 for IWU. Denison's Spencer Butler led all goal-scorers with 11 goals while Liam Rooney recorded a game-high seven assists.