THE BASICS:
 
- Score: Springfield College 18, MIT 14
 
- Records: MIT (6-10); Springfield (7-9)
 
- Location: Springfield, Mass. (Stagg Field)
 
- The Lead: The No. 3 seeded MIT men's lacrosse team saw its season come to an end following an 18-14 loss to No. 2 Springfield College in the semifinals of the NEWMAC Tournament on Thursday night. Senior Heath Nilsen (Carlsbad, Calif.) tallied three goals and three assists, increasing his career points total to 203, while sophomore Garrett Campagna (Lancaster, Pa.) notched six points on one goal and five assists.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- MIT opened the scoring with four goals during the last 5:55 of the first quarter. Sophomore Bryce Metalios (Old Greenwich) was a factor in the first two goals as he redirected a feed from Campagna and then he set up junior Nick Stiles (New Canaan, Conn.). Junior Dylan Nelson (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) followed with an unassisted goal while sophomore Zach Bleil (New Canaan, Conn.) connected on a pass from Nilsen for a man-up goal with 26 seconds remaining.
 
- Springfield responded with seven goals in the second quarter, taking a 7-4 lead into halftime.
 
- The Pride added a man-up goal nine seconds into the third quarter, but the Engineers scored back-to-back goals 35 seconds apart to come within 8-6 at the 12:16 mark. Bleil buried a man-up strike that was assisted by Campagna and then Metalios scored on a pass by Bleil. This was as close as it would get as Springfield rattled off five straight goals. MIT, however, narrowed the gap to 14-8 courtesy of two goals during the final 2:35 of the frame, with Nilsen being a factor in both. He earned an assist on a goal by Metalios and scored on a feed from Campagna.
 
- Both teams traded goals until back-to-back blasts by the Pride increased its lead to 18-10 with 5:38 left to play. The Engineers went on to generate four goals down the stretch.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 
- Bleil and Metalios both finished with three goals and one assist as graduate student Andrew Palleiko (Hopkinton, Mass.) collected 11 groundballs and won 17 of his 34 faceoff attempts. Senior Luke Chapman (Houston, Texas) and sophomore Isaiah Nathaniel (Scotch Plains, N.J.) both scooped up three groundballs as sophomore Michael Popik (Arlington, Mass.) produced two caused turnovers.
 
- In net, graduate student David Vapnek (San Diego, Calif.) made 12 saves.
 
- Nilsen became the fourth player in program history to eclipse 200 career points. Harris Stolzenberg '17, set the MIT record with 268 points, followed by Graham Davis '18 (250), and Ryan Gebhardt '23 (233).
 
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