MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — Thomas Fies (So., Evanston, Ill.) scored six times to collect Player of the Game accolades and lead 10 student-athletes in scoring as Division III No. 1-ranked Washington University in St. Louis of the Missouri Valley Division found the cage early and often in grounding the host Wesleyan University Cardinals of the Colonial Division, 25-0, in the opening game of the 2018 Men’s Division III Collegiate Club Championship at Wesleyan.
A five-time (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) Division III Collegiate Club Champion, the Bears wasted little time in stating their intent to make it six overall and five in a row as Washington ticked off eight goals in the first quarter to acquire a commanding lead and never look back.
Following a 9-0 outburst in the second quarter to carry a 17-0 scoreboard advantage into halftime, the Bears didn’t hibernate in the second half as the team tacked on five and three goals in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, to complete the shutout.
Beyond Fies, the Bears received five goals by John Hooker (Jr., Calabasas, Calif.) along with trios from Brett Virgin-Downey (Gr., Clayton, Mo.), Spencer Lehmann (So., Barrington, Ill.) and Max Bernstein (Sr., St, Louis, Mo.) as five Washington University players posted hat-tricks or better. Jacob Hepp (Fr., Seattle, Wash.), Aaron Lowenstein (Sr., Miami Beach, Fla.), David Ling (So., Seattle, Wash.), Ricky Kuehn (So., Clayton, Mo.) and Eric Olaya (Sr., Bordentown, N.J.) each scored once to account for the remainder of the Bears’ damage.
In cage, Michael Lorberg (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) earned the win with four saves in the first half prior to Brian Xu (So., Irvine, Calif.) coming in to stop six shots in the second half.
Courtesy the win, Washington advances into the tournament semifinals at 6:50 p.m. tonight as the Bears will meet the victory of a first round game between Division III No. 8 Carnegie Mellon University of the Mid-Atlantic Division and No. 7 New York University of the New York Division.
A loss to the Tartans or Bobcats would shatter a seven-year run of title game appearances by Washington as the team defeated Bowdoin College (2011) prior to falling to Monmouth College (2012) and the University of California-Santa Cruz (2013) in back-to-back championship games. A co-champion with UC-Santa Cruz in 2014 as a power outage at host Bowdoin College cause the title game to be canceled, the Bears have dominated the championship since with defeats of Middlebury College (2015), Carnegie Mellon (2016) and Tufts University (2017) during the past three seasons.
in the history of the championship, a Missouri Valley team has advanced to the title game 10 times with Lindenwood University winning the 2006, 2007 and 2008 crowns.
Wesleyan, which received four saves by goalie Garrett Kaufman in taking the loss, will return to action on the consolation side of the bracket against the loser of the Carnegie Mellon-NYU opening round game at 5:40 p.m. with eyes on a potential Fifth Place game berth. In the Cardinals’ history at the Division III Club Championship, the team has previously placed First (1999, 2004, 2005), Second (2000, 2002, 2003, 2006), Fourth (2012) and Fifth (2013).
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 8 | 9 | 5 | 3 | – | 25 |
| Wesleyan University | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
| Wesleyan Goals: | None | |||||
| Washington Goals: | Thomas Fies (6); John Hooker (5); Brett Virgin-Downey (3); Spencer Lehmann (3); Max Bernstein (3); Jacob Hepp; Aaron Lowenstein; David Ling; Ricky Kuehn; Eric Olaya | |||||
| Saves: | Wesleyan – Garrett Kaufman (4) ; Washington – Michael Lorberg (4, 14 minutes), Brian Xu (6, 14 minutes) | |||||
| Exclusions: | Wesleyan – 7 ; Washington – 4 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Wesleyan – 0-for-4 ; Washington – 5-for-7 | |||||
| Sprints: | Wesleyan – 2-for-4 (3rd, 4th) ; Washington – 2-for-4 (1st, 2nd) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Dennis Kinne, Gabriel Maldonado | |||||
Washington University in St. Louis’ Ricky Kuehn rises to shoot
Washington University in St. Louis’ Levi Kohl
Wesleyan University’s Issac Thorman lines up a shot
