The 2009/10 lacrosse season was one of the best seasons in Cincinnati’s history and was a year filled with accomplishments and firsts. It started in the fall with the Bearcats beating Miami in the Capitol Tournament Championship to bring home the inaugural trophy in that tournament. Cincinnati continued its winning ways in the Midwest Lacrosse Festival where they brought home their first ever championship in that tournament after placing second and third in the previous seasons. During the MLF the Bearcats were also able to knock off rivals Ohio U. and Ohio State on their way to the trophy. By the end of the year Cincinnati had won its third consecutive Midwest Regional Championship, and was advancing to the NCLL Elite Eight for the second time in the last three seasons. There was one thing Cincinnati was not able to cross off its list though, a National Championship as they lost in the Final Four to Lynchburg University in a high scoring back and forth game.

In Cincinnati’s first game they lined up against a talented St. Mary’s team that looked ready to give the Bearcats all they bargained for. Cincinnati started off strong taking a 9-3 lead into the half and controlling the ball possession. The second half was a much different story as UC was outscored 6-2 and was looking out of sync. However, the Bearcats pulled themselves together at the end of the game and were able to hang on to an 11-9 win moving them onto the Final Four.

Cincinnati was led in this game by Zach Fehr who tallied four goals, as well as attackmen Bobby Nagle and Danny Macauley who each scored two goals. other scorers were Ray Harper and and Alex Arkeilpane.

The Final Four match up featured a high powered Lynchburg team that has made multiple championship appearances recently and was a favorite coming into the tournament again this year. Cincinnati started the game off well taking a 6-1 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the momentum would not last as the second quarter scoring was 6-2 in Lynchburgs favor with the halftime score reading 8-7, Bearcats. The third quarter remained close as each team notched four more goals and went into the final quarter with Cincinnati leading 12-11. The fourth quarter saw it slip away from the Bearcats as they were losing the ground ball battle and as a result the possession battle as well. Lynchburg was able to rack up five more goals in the quarter while UC managed only three and with five seconds left and the ball at midfield after a penalty UC had one last chance to try to even the score, but the pass was batted down and the game, as well as the Bearcats season ended.

UC was led in scoring by returning attackman Jason Keck, who in just his second game back with the team since injuring his hip racked up four goals and an assist in limited playing time. In his final game with the Bearcats, senior Bobby Nagle scored three times while the other two attackmen Danny Macauley and Joe Werner both scored twice, with Werner adding two assists. Other scorers were Zach Fehr, Phil Cowles, Matt Keller and Alex Arkeilpane.

With the season ending one game earlier then the Bearcats would have liked the team will be working hard in the off-season to improve and reload for next season. With a returning core of players, as well as a highly anticipated incoming class Cincinnati looks to be on track for another tournament run next year.

The Bearcats would like to thank everyone who has supported and followed us and helped make this such an incredible year, we could not do it without the help of our fans!

On Friday, April 23rd the Bearcats walked into a hostile environment at Youngstown State and walked out with an NCLL D-II Regional Championship, Cincinnati’s second in three years. However, this game was anything but easy for the Bearcats as they were trailing the entire first half to a big and physical Youngstown State team. With freshman Zia Ahmed in goal for starter Kyle O’Neal, and several other starters missing, the young Bearcats were able to come from four goals down halftime to win the game 9-5 moving on to the NCLL “Elite 8″ in Maryland with their first game against St. Mary’s on Saturday, May 1st.

The turn in momentum can be attributed to an increase in the aggressiveness of the defenders as well as a very quick two goals scored by Ray Harper to start the third quarter and bring Cincinnati to within a two goals of the Penguins. Senior Bobby Nagel also had a great game finding the back of the net five times, leading all scorers.

After an impressive come from behind win at YSU the Bearcats travelled to New York to take on Buffalo State and Canisius in UC’s first trip to the liberty state. The Bearcats beat both Buffalo State and Canisius 11-5 and 11-1 respectively. Cincinnati had an impressive team effort as every player contributed equally to the quality road wins. In his first extensive action since joining the Bearcats, freshman goalie Zia Ahmed played very well allowing only 11 goals in 3 games on the road trip. Ahmed will be counted on next season as the Bearcats will lose senior Goalie Kyle O’Neal.

Cincinnati will leave Friday morning and stay over night to prepare for their first game at 8:30 Saturday morning against St. Mary’s of Maryland. The games will be played at The University of Maryland.

The Cincinnati Bearcats Travelled to Ohio State University where they participated in the two day Midwest Lacrosse Festival on Friday and Saturday, and came home with their first MLF Championship, as well as the good feeling of avenging their earlier losses to Ohio State and Ohio University. Cincinnati has never won this tournament before, finishing second in ‘08 and third in ‘09, but this year the Bearcats got hot at the right time and were able to make the victorious drive back to Cincinnati for the first time. The tournament started off at 7:00PM on Friday and concluded with the Championship game at 4:30PM Saturday evening.

In the Preliminary rounds of the tournament The Bearcats faced off against Kent State, Ohio University, and Bowling Green going 2-1 with a 3-2 loss to Ohio University. Cincinnati got solid contributions from the entire team as every player was counted on to contribute through the preliminary rounds in order to keep the team fresh for the elimination rounds. UC won their games against KSU and BG 12-5 and 8-4 respectively.

The first round of elimination had the Bearcats facing off against a familiar foe, the Louisville Cardinals, whom the Bearcats have already faced once in the regular season, and twice in the pre-season. Well, a familiar foe produced familiar results as the Bearcats picked up a 5-0 shutout victory and advanced to the Semi-Final round of the tournament against OSU.

In the Semi-Finals Cincinnati got caught up in a hard fought battle with the Ohio State Buckeyes that went into overtime where the Bearcats Sophomore midfielder Andrew Murray was able to win the face-off giving UC the ball. Cincinnati quickly found the back of the net for the 6-5 sudden death victory and advanced to the Finals against Ohio University for the second time in the last three years.

The MLF Championship game was not very much different from the Semi-Final as the teams were tied or within one goal of each other for the entire game.  And just like the previous game, regulation was not enough time to decide the winner and the game would go to overtime. However, in this overtime both teams had opportunities to end the game, but a big save by Goalie Kyle O’Neal, and a huge game winning goal from midfielder Zach Fehr sealed the 4-3 win for the Bearcats as the bench stormed the field to celebrate their first MLF Tournament Championship!

The Bearcats had an outstanding tournament from senior Goalie Kyle O’Neal who denied, rejected, and stuffed almost every shot that came his way posting a shutout and frustrating the other teams to no end. The Bearcats defense got hot at the right time as they were able to control their opponents and keep the crease clear holding their final three opponents to a combined total of 8 goals.

Cincinnati will be playing their last home game of the season on Wednesday night at 8:00PM when they face off against cross-town rival Xavier Musketeers. Dont miss this last chance to see the Bearcats before they begin their NCLL Tournament run.

On Sunday the Bearcats travelled to Denison University for a double-header against Denison and Ohio State. These games figured to be the first that would really test the Bearcats, and they certainly lived up to those expectations. Cincinnati was able to pull off a come from behind 9-7 victory over Denison University, but lost their second of back to back games 12-8 to Ohio State University.

In the first game against The Big Red, Cincinnati was unable to get things going in the first half and looked very sluggish as they found themselves trailing 4-2. In the second half the Bearcats looked like a totally different team as they went on to rack up six more goals while limiting Denison to just Two. Midfielders Zach Fehr and Ray Harper were instrumental in the win as they filled in for the Bearcats three injured face-off specialists and were able to win ten out of seventeen face-offs against Denison. Great games were also turned in by attackmen Bobby Nagle and Danny Macauley who scored four goals and two goals respectively. Although the first half was sloppy the Bearcat defense really stepped it up in the second half and did a great job of playing physical and imposing their will on the Denison attackmen.

The Bearcats took a quick fifteen minute break to rest and stretch out before suiting up again to play the Ohio State Buckeyes in what turned out to be a game the Bearcats will want to forget. Cincinnati came out slow, and let the game get away from them early as a barrage of dropped balls, bad passes, and missed assignments contributed to a hole to large for the Bearcats to climb out of. Cincinnati made a push in the second half and began playing better lacrosse, but it was too little too late as Cincinnati dropped their first game of the year. The stats tell the story of this game as Cincinnati lost the ground ball battle 20-12 and lost the face-off battle 16-7.

These games will move the Bearcats record to 5-1 on the season keeping Cincinnati at the top of the Midwest South Conference. UC will travel to Athens to take on the Ohio University Bobcats next week in hopes of avenging their overtime loss in the pre-season; don’t miss this opportunity as it promises to be a great game of lacrosse!

While veteran keeper Kyle O’Neal posted his first shutout of the season, as well as his second game allowing only one goal, the weekend’s star player was scoring goals, not defending them.  Junior attackman Tony Piloto has been playing in place of injured Jason Keck, and has been piling up the goals as a consequence. In three games this weekend Piloto found the net nine times including seven goals against Western Kentucky. Other solid performances were delivered by freshman midfielder Joe Werner who registered six goals over the weekend, and junior midfielder Zach Fehr who scored five. The Bearcats had a great all around effort this weekend as every player contributed in each game and helped push Cincinnati’s overall record to 4-0 this season.

The Bearcats next games will take place on March 7th at Denison University as Cincinnati will face off against both Denison and Ohio State.

The Cincinnati Bearcats Lacrosse Team opened their 2009/10 season with a 16-1 win against The Eastern Kentucky University Colonels at Nippert Stadium. This opening day win for Cincinnati marks the fifth consecutive season the Bearcats have started their year off with a win. Saturdays game was played on about three inches of snow which made for an extremely interesting game of lacrosse, to say the least.

The Bearcats came out somewhat sloppy to start the game and held a 4-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. The second quarter saw Cincinnati step it up as they extended their lead to 9-1 by the time the whistle blew at half. After warming up in the locker room the Bearcats stayed hot and racked up seven more goals while holding EKU scoreless for the rest of the game.

With this win the Bearcats will turn their attention  to Xavier and Purdue who they will be hosting at Nippert Stadium on Valentines Day. Come support the Bearcats as they look to improve their record to 3-0 next weekend!

Just a week after suffering a tough loss against OU  in Athens, the Bearcats travelled to Dayton to take on the MCLA Division II National Champion Dayton Flyers, who have been unable to find a win against Cincinnati in their last few meetings. Last year the Bearcats took care of business against Dayton beating them twice, once in pre-season, and then once again in the regular season in OT. This time UD was fired up and ready for some redemption!

The game started off in the Bearcats favor as they scored three goals quickly and established a lead early in the game. For the remainder of the game the Cincinnati lead remained at two or three goals until the forth quarter. Once the fourth quarter arrived UD battled back like they always seem to do, and took a one goal lead with just under a minute to play. Cincinnati won the next faceoff, and drove the ball down for the game tying goal by Bobby Nagle. In overtime Cincinnati’s Mike Quinto continued his dominance on faceoffs and gave Cincinnati the ball first and the game winning goal was scored quicky by Jason Keck. Goalie Kyle O’Neal turned in his second straight greatgame in the nets, helping the Bearcats hold off the Flyers 14-13.

With this win, the Bearcats have once again proven they have the talent to play with anyone, and they are going to be a force to recon with this season. The victory over Dayton now pushes the Bearcats unbeaten streak against the MCLA to over 3 years and counting. While the pre-season is officially over, Cincinnati is still trying to set up scrimmages with Ohio State, Xavier, and Mt. St. Joes DIII team sometime during November, and welcomes any opportunities to play other college teams in the area!

  The Cincinnati Bearcats opened the pre-season with an early game on Saturday, beating the Louisville Cardinals at Clark Montessori High School in Hyde Park. The game was a good opener for the Bearcats as they were able to run all five lines of midfielders all game long, and give a lot of game experience to new players. The game ended with a final score of 11-5 in favor of the Bearcats who needed to quickly turn their attention to the Capitol Tournament at the Bryn Du Mansion that awaited them in Granville the following morning.

   Because of travel complications one scheduled team was unable to make the tournament and the Bearcats had to split their team in order to facilitate proper bracketing. Cincinnati’s Freshmen team would take on Louisville in the first game of the tournament, while the veteran team Took on Capitol at the same time. The veteran team came away with a convincing 8-0 win, while the freshmen team played very well, but were unable to beat a bigger, and most  likely angry Louisville team looking to avenge their defeat from the previous morning; the final score was 4-3 Cardinals.

   In UC’s next couple games against Carnegie Mellon and ODU, they were able to combine their teams once again to play as a full unit, and the added depth paid off. The Bearcats would go on to rout their next two opponents CMU and ODU 14-1 and 11-0 respectively.

   In the Championship game the Bearcats would face their toughest obstacle in the Miami Redhawks, who also went through the tournament undefeated (the freshmen game did not count on the tournament record). Cincinnati grabbed the momentum early with 4 unanswered goals to start the game. Jason Keck and Bobby Nagle were crucial to the offensive success as they served as the major facilitators in what turned into a solid 12-4 victory for the Bearcats.

   While this was certainly a good start, the Bearcats know they have a long way to go to reach the level they hope to play at this season. Cincinnati will try to build on their early success in the Ohio University Halloween Tournament October 31st in Athens, Ohio.

The Cincinnati Bearcats spent Friday and Saturday of this Easter weekend in Columbus at the Midwest Lacrosse Festival where they competed in a tournament with many of the top teams from around the region. This is the second year in a row the Bearcats have competed in this tournament and advanced to the final four (MLF Runner-up 08), but with a loss to Ohio State, it will also be the second year in a row where Cincinnati leaves disappointed.

            Cincinnati opened the tournament against Slippery Rock (PA), who figured to be one of the better teams in the tournament. After a back and forth start, the Bearcats were able to pull away and finished with a 6-3 victory. Scorers were Jason Keck (3), Danny Macaully (2) and Matt Keller (1). The defense was led in goal by Kyle O’Neal, who limited the Slippery Rock players to just three goals. Cincinnati played well and after gaining a forfeit victory in the next game, the Bearcats were 2-0 and ready to get some sleep for a big Saturday of lacrosse.

            The first game on Saturday was against Kent State University who was unable to put much pressure on the Bearcats, as Cincinnati came away with a 12-4 victory. The Defense was led in this game by Goalie Matt Tassos, who combined with the rest of the long poles to limit Kent State to just 4-23 shooting. The Bearcats were led in scoring by Brandon Mowrey, Taylor Brooks and Griff Krehnbrink, who each scored twice, while Anthony Winrod, David Jarmus, Stephen Heffner, Matt Keller, Phil Cowles, Ray Harper, and Bobby Nagle scored the remaining goals for the Bearcats. Cincinnati was able to run five lines of midfielders in this game, getting goals from each one, and because of this they were able to keep everyone fresh as they prepared for the first elimination round of the tournament.

            Entering the Tournament as the number three seed, Cincinnati was given a buy for the first round, and would end up facing Ohio Wesleyan in what looked like it would be a very competitive game through the first half as the two teams entered halftime tied at 2-2. Cincinnati regrouped and came out strong in the second half, scoring five unanswered goals en route to a 7-2 victory. Jason Keck Led all scorers with three goals, and the remaining goals were scored by Ray Harper, Taylor Brooks, Rob Magness, and Matt Keller. The defense was led in goal by Kyle O’Neal and saw a great game from defender Paul McKay who helped Cincinnati win a 29-20 ground ball battle on a very choppy field. With the win the Bearcats advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament where they would face Ohio State.

            Cincinnati entered the semi-final round against Ohio State having already lost once to them this year and were hoping to even the score, however, it would not be their fate as they came out flat, and never really found their stride losing 6-3. Kyle O’Neal played a good game in goal, while the Cincinnati goals were scored by Griff Krehnbrink and Matt Keller who had two.

            With this semi-final loss the Bearcats will begin preparing for the National Qualifiers next weekend on a sour note. Cincinnati played well at times during the tournament, but was unable to maintain a high level of play and found themselves in too many bad situations. The Bearcats will need to play with more consistency if they hope to accomplish their most important goal this season, which always has been and remains; win a national championship.

The Cincinnati Bearcats travelled up to Ohio University on Friday to face off against a very talented Bobcats team that was ready to defend its turf. Cincinnati kept it close through the first two quarters and entered the half tied at five, but in the second half the Bearcats were plagued by turnovers and ended up losing 9-6.

            The Bearcat offense was led by attackman Jason Keck who notched two goals, while the remaining goals were scored by Danny Macaully, Bobby Nagle, Matt Keller, and Zack Fehr.

            The Cincinnati defense was led by the trio of Mike Noonan, Paul Mckay, and Ross Sefton, and received solid contributions from John Paino, Bryan King, and John May at LSM.

Cincinnati has never beaten OU and is usually outmatched by the deep and athletic teams OU always seems to assemble; however, that was not the case this year. This time the Bearcats simply played poorly, and didn’t look at all like the team they have been all season. The Bearcats will have the chance next weekend to avenge one of their losses this year and now the 9-6 defeat at Pruitt Field to OU will hopefully fuel a fire inside the Cincinnati players who are all looking forward to the opportunity to even the score on one of their losses at the Midwest Lacrosse Festival.