The second-seeded St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team advanced to the Liberty League Championships for the first time since 2009 after defeating No. 3 Vassar 11-7 in the semifinals Friday afternoon at North Country Field. Vassar, who made their first appearance in the Liberty League tournament, opened up scoring when Sam Houston-Read circled the crease and slipped a shot in the upper-left-hand corner past Saints' goaltender Alex Terry. Evenly matched from the start, the Brewers took a 3-2 lead with 1:59 to play in the first quarter. Jordan Dow quickly responded to tie the game 3-3 just 42 seconds later. Conor Healey scored his first goal of the game giving the Saints a one-goal lead as he fired a shot an inch under the crossbar with two seconds left in the first quarter. Both teams scored two goals apiece in the second quarter, capped by a man-up goal from Andrew Jarrett, giving the Saints a 6-5 lead at halftime. The Saints capitalized on a turnover in front of the Vassar goal to take a 5-3 early in the third quarter. With just under two minutes to play in the third, Dow fed Jamie DeNicola a pass at the top of the crease, DeNicola then flipped the ball between his legs for his third goal of the game. Jarrett extended the Saints lead to five with just over five minutes to play in the final quarter. "Today was a great win and hats off to Vassar, they gave us everything we could have asked for. Marc Graham has done a great job with that program and it was a four-quarter battle and a great job by Vassar," said head coach Mike Mahoney. "I was really happy with how our guys responded in the second half, particularly on the attack between DeNicola and Healey. They were able to finish on opportunities and it was a good team effort. We know we need to continue to find ways to get better, but we're happy to be playing for a conference championship on Sunday." DeNicola led the Saints with four goals, while Healey scored three goals and added an assist. Jarrett netted two goals, while Jon Fairbanks and Dow each scored one goal and tallied one assist. Terry made eight saves in goal for the Saints. Houston-Read and James Thomas led the way for the Brewers with two goals and an assist each. Chris Billups, Michael Mullen and Brandon DeStasio each scored one goal. Matthew Boyd recorded 10 saves in goal for Vassar and picked up a team-high of five ground balls. The Saints outshot the Brewers 41-28 and capitalized on 2-of-3 man-up opportunities. St. Lawrence also picked up 24 ground balls to Vassar's 19. Vassar ended their season 11-5, while St. Lawrence improved to 15-1 on the season and will travel to Rochester, New York to take on RIT in the Liberty League championship game Sunday at 12 p.m.