Dan Valente made 13 saves, including nine in the fourth quarter to lead Hobart over Colgate, 8-4. (Photo by Art Foxall)

April 7, 2004

GENEVA, N.Y.—The Hobart lacrosse team clinched a berth in the Patriot League Tournament tonight behind the hot goaltending of junior Dan Valente (Mount Hebron/Ellicott City, Md.) in an 8-4 victory over Colgate University at McCooey Field. Valente made 13 saves on the night, including nine in the fourth quarter.

Hobart (5-4, 5-1 PL) posted its 23rd consecutive victory over the Raiders (5-5, 1-2) and joined PL frontrunner Navy as the first two teams to earn a spot in the four-team tournament which begins April 30, at the highest seed.

A defensive slugfest from start to finish, junior midfielder Chris Scanlon (Corning West/Painted Post, N.Y.) notched the only goal of the first quarter to give Hobart the lead.

Forty-eight seconds into the second frame, Colgate pulled even on a goal by sophomore attackman Brian Robinson (Colorado Academy/Denver, Colo.).

The Statesmen responded with back-to-back goals to take a 3-1 lead. First-year attackman Rory Melvin (Episcopal Academy/Bryn Mawr, Pa.) gave Hobart the lead for good netting a man-up goal at the 7:06 mark. Senior attackman Mark Williamson (Corning East/Corning, N.Y.) netted his team-leading 24th goal of the season just a short time later.

Colgate stayed close, pulling within one with the final goal of the first half off the stick of senior midfielder Jeff Vander Meulen (Liverpool/Liverpool, N.Y.).

After the break, the team’s traded goals to make it a 4-3 contest, before Hobart’s offense finally roared to life with four unanswered goals. Sophomore midfielder Pat Meade (Schenectady/Schenectady, N.Y.) opened the barrage on an acrobatic jump shot for his ninth of the season. He was followed just two minutes later by Mr. Third Quarter, first-year midfielder Chris David (Georgetown Prep/Silver Springs, Md.). All seven of David’s goals this season have come in the third quarter.

Scanlon tacked on his second goal of the game to close the third quarter and junior attackman Sean Reed (Waterloo/Waterloo, N.Y.) closed out the run at the 12:36 mark of the fourth, leaving Hobart an 8-3 advantage.

From then on the spotlight belonged to Valente. His nine-save fourth quarter performance included three stops on point-blank shots. Valente lowered his goals against average to 8.26 while raising his save percentage to .607.

Hobart returns to action on April 10, when the Nittany Lions of Penn State visit Geneva. Game time is tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m., on Boswell Field. If Boswell Field is deemed unplayable, the contest will be moved to McCooey Field and the opening faceoff will be moved up to noon.