Everything came full circle for Jacksonville University men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon as six of the Dolphins' 10 seniors recorded a point in a 14-5 win over Southern Conference foe VMI on Senior Day. With a 6-5 record overall, the victory marks Jacksonville's first .500 or better season since 2013 and just its second winning season in program history. Concluding the regular season with a 5-2 record in the SoCon, the Dolphins earn the #3 seed in the league tournament, hosted by the University of Richmond. Jacksonville will play #2 High Point at UR's Robins Stadium in the semifinals this Thursday, May 3 at 8 p.m. "Today was more meaningful than just another win for our program. We talked all week about the impact our 10 seniors have had on this program," stated head coach John Galloway following the win. "Each young man in that class has positively impacted our program and this University both on and off the field. It was important that we leave those guys with a lasting positive memory of Milne Field." The senior class combined for half of the team's 22 points, including two goals and two assists from Shawn Ewert and a hat trick from McLean Chicquen. Hunter Forbes finished 16-for-20 at the face off X and picked up a game-high 10 ground balls to continue his 30-game streak with at least one ground ball. On the other end of the field, Ryan Beville dished an assist, picked up six ground balls, and caused a pair of turnovers, while Chase York mirrored that performance with an assist of his own to go along with his ground ball and caused turnover. Playing the final quarter between the pipes, Ben Gleichenhaus picked up a ground ball and caused a turnover in the crease. Sparked by a pair of goals from Chicquen to open the game, junior Eric Applegate answered a Keydet goal with 7:51 showing. The Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. native came around the left side of the crease, dodged his defender, and finished high-to-low to make it 3-1 in favor of the Dolphins. Less than three minutes later, Applegate drew a pair of Keydet defenders and found sophomore Dwayne Mattushik on the doorstep to extend the Dolphins lead to 4-1 with 5:04 in the first. "I thought we executed our plan for long enough periods of time to keep VMI from making a run," Galloway added. "I want to specifically credit Dixon Smith, Gavin Legg, and Tommy Barnhorst for making big time plays in between the lines to give our offense second-chance opportunities. We are starting to trust each other on both sides of the ball, and we will need exactly that to compete for a championship this week in Richmond." The all-freshmen trio of Smith, Legg, and Barnhorst strung together some impressive plays throughout. Smith held VMI's top scorer, Ryan Perouty, under his season average, and picked up a ground ball and caused two turnovers, while Barnhorst added a ground ball and caused a turnover between helping the Dolphins stop three VMI extra-man opportunities. Just 10 seconds after Perouty cut the Dolphins' lead in half, 6-3, at 2:15 in the second quarter, Legg buried a pass from Beville, who scooped the ground ball off the face off. Legg finished the game with three ground balls, two caused turnovers, and was 2-for-2 at the face off X. Junior Evan Tyler added back-to-back goals with 8.0 left in the second and 10:24 in the third to extend the Dolphins' momentum through halftime. Freshmen Jeremy Winston and Gavin Dembeck closed out the third with goals at 3:15 and 1:13, respectively, to push JU's run to 5-0 and an 11-3 lead heading into the final quarter. Though VMI ended JU's 5-0 run with a goal from Donald Proper with 13:32 to go, Jacksonville bounced back with goals from redshirt-senior Mitchell Parker (11:17) and Chicquen (9:29) to keep the Keydets at bay. If second assists were given in lacrosse like they are in hockey, credit Gleichenhaus with a point. In his final home game at D.B. Milne Field, Gleichenhaus stole an errant Keydet pass from the air, found York down the field in transition, who then dished to Chicquen for the senior-to-senior-to-senior goal. Perouty and Ewert traded unassisted goals at 3:43 and 1:47, respectively, as the Dolphins closed out the game with their widest margin of victory on the year, 14-5. Applegate (2 goals, 1 assist) and Tyler (2g, 1a) finished the day with three points each, while junior Hunter Sells totaled three saves in the win to improve to 7-5 between the pipes for the Dolphins. Perouty and Austin Henry led VMI with a pair of goals each, while goalie Bill Osteen posted seven saves in the loss. As the #3 seed in next week's SoCon Tournament, Jacksonville will face #2 High Point in the semifinals at Richmond's Robins Stadium on Thursday, May 3 at 8 p.m.