Army men’s lacrosse team anxiously waited after its dominating Patriot League performance over visiting Colgate Friday.
The Black Knights’ postseason would be determined by a result 90 minutes after their victory. Loyola’s one-goal win over Navy created a three-way tie for first place and gave Army its first of its three 2026 season goals.
Army earned a first-round bye in the league’s six-team tournament and the right to host the semifinal and final rounds at Michie Stadium next Friday and Sunday. The Black Knights received the No. 1 seed on scoring differential in games between Loyola, Boston University and Army, which have now won or shared four straight league regular season titles. Each team finished conference play at 6-2.
Perhaps more importantly, the 17-6 win over the Raiders, who had won four of their last five games, including four a row in league play, saw Army playing its best lacrosse of the season. The No. 14-ranked Black Knights, now 11-3 overall, have won five straight games after a midseason three-game losing streak and simply seem to be getting more confident and steady in every aspect of the game.
Against Colgate, there were lots of stars. The veterans on the team are simply doing what they have done for years now. Senior Gunnar Fellows had two goals and three assists while classmate Evan Plunkett and Cal Lambert each scored a goal. Sean Byrne, the senior goalie who had yet another outstanding game in the net with 12 saves on 16 shots, actually scored the Black Knights first goal of the game against a 10-man ride by Colgate that left the Raiders’ goal wide open.
Seniors shined on defense too. Along with Byrne, senior defensemen John Sullivan and Keagan Treacy, smothered the Raiders, holding them to few shots and no goals for nearly 25 minutes in the middle of the game that broke open a 2-2 game and helped Army take an insurmountable 9-2 lead at halftime. Sullivan also added a goal against another 10-man ride early in the second quarter.
“I think it starts with our scout team during the week,” said Treacy. “They really buy into their role and get after us every day so that on game day it is always easier than our practices. Coach (Kyle) Georgalas pushes us to get better every day. We have tremendous trust in Sean and we work as a unit, we communicate and we move as one.”
Junior Drew Miller scored two goals and freshman Kellye Riordan scored the Black Knights’ last goal of the game late in the fourth quarter.
But it may be Army’s super sophomores who will truly make the difference in the upcoming Patriot League tournament and win the tourney, its second goal, and make some real noise in the NCAA tournament next month, its ultimate goal. Their talents were on full display against Colgate, with Brayden Fountain scoring four times, Aiden Weisenborn adding three goals, his first hat trick at Army, and Hill Plunkett scoring once with two assists. Classmate Tyler Clark had an assist while, defensively, Jimmy Manley and Tommy Stines played big roles in keeping Colgate at bay.
“The coaches found a really good class in the guys that are sophomores right now,” said Weisenborn. “These guys are contributing at all levels of defense and offense. I am just fortunate to be a part of such a talented group.”
Now, it’s on to the Patriot League and winning the tournament and gaining its automatic bid to next month’s NCAA tournament.
Weisenborn is confident that his team can keep the momentum going.
“Anybody on this offense can do anything,” Weisenborn said. “It is an offense that is really hard to guard for defenses and it is really unscoutable. We fell that going into the playoffs it is something we can leverage to our advantage. When we play with confidence and play with speed, we hope it is going to be really hard to guard us in the Patriot League’s playoffs.”
While emphasizing the things will only get tougher going forward, Army coach Joe Alberici continues to like what he sees from team that lost five All-Americans and 22 seniors from last year’s squad.
“We are playing really good lacrosse,” Alberici said, noting that he is happy to not be playing a first-round game in a league he views as extremely balanced. “(Early in the season) we were far from a complete team even though we started off 6-0. We still had a lot of things to improve upon and those three losses by a combined four goals were difficult to swallow. But they have shown resilience since then to bounce back and really play a little bit better each week. We will take a few days to rest up and on Monday we will get back to the process of continuing to get better.”
