NEWBERRY, S.C. -- Stakes were high as Anderson's men's lacrosse team made the short trip to Newberry on Wednesday evening to round out the regular season. Going into the contest, the Trojans were 8-1 in South Atlantic Conference play, sitting second on the leaderboard, while the host team sat just one game behind in third place with a 7-2 league record. The winner of the matchup would clinch a two-seed in the upcoming conference tournament, a title that comes with a first-round bye. 

After six minutes of play, with the scoreline at 2-1 in favor of the Wolves, the game was halted due to lightning in the area. The break for weather went on for nearly three hours, before the teams were cleared to return to the field around 10:15 PM. 

"Credit to our team being able to handle the lightning delay well," said Head Coach Albert Mitchell. "We played really hard and together through a lot of mistakes in the first half. It paid off in the second half run. Really proud of the heart we displayed tonight going into postseason play now." 

The first quarter resumed with Radyn Badraun (Mission Viejo, Calif.) scoring his first of five goals on the night. He led the Trojans on the scoresheet, adding an assist for six total points, along with two caused turnovers and one groundball. Q1 ended with Newberry holding a 4-3 advantage. 

The second quarter saw Brodie Deutsch (Wilmington, N.C.), Matthew Rodgers (Carmel, Ind.) and Cole Sparks (West Islip, N.Y.) get on the board. The game was level at 7 going into halftime. 

Following the break, a pair of goals from Badraun and one from PJ Fenchak (Lutherville Timonium, Md.) gave the Trojans their first lead of the night. Ryan Bitterman (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Sparks then added two more, boasting AU's advantage to four, before the Wolves bounced back with two of their own in the closing 30 seconds of Q3 to cut the Trojan advantage in half. 

The Black and Gold proceeded to open the fourth quarter the same way they did the third, scoring three unanswered—this time from the sticks of Brayden Bushnoe (Myrtle Beach, S.C.), Max Calabrese (Auburn, Ga.) and Rodgers. The five-goal deficit with ten minutes to play would prove to be too big a task to overcome for the host team, and the Trojans brought home a 16-13 victory. 

With the win, Anderson advances to 12-3 overall and 9-1 in SAC contests to close out the regular season. Finishing second on the league leaderboard, the Trojans will get a bye for the opening round of the conference tournament which kicks off this Saturday. Anderson will host the winner of three-seed Lenoir-Rhyne and six-seed Catawba on Wednesday (April 30). Time is to be determined.