CHARLOTTE (Feb. 18, 2007) - Senior Nick Dello-Iacono made 17 saves in his second NCAA start, while the C.W. Post men's lacrosse team, ranked No. 4 in the USILA Division II Poll and No. 5 in the Face-Off Yearbook preseason tally, went 4-for-5 on extra-man opportunities Sunday afternoon, as the Pioneers won in head coach John Jez's first game at the helm of the program, taking an 8-6 victory at Queens (N.C.), in the season opener for both teams.

C.W. Post (1-0) never trailed in the contest, and opened up a 2-0 advantage on man-up goals by Charles Senn (2 g, 1 a) with 9:22 left in the first period and Matt Merritt with 6:22 to go. Queens (0-1), ranked No. 9 in the Face-Off Yearbook preseason balloting, cut its deficit in half when Alexander Tack scored the first of his game-high three goals with 2:21 remaining in the frame.

The Pioneers' Rob Renetta (2 g) and the Royals' Joshua Bryce traded man-up goals in the first five minutes of the second period, before Joe Meo and Greg Cerar scored 54 seconds apart to push the C.W. Post lead to 5-2 with 8:24 left in the half. Queens countered with goals by Bryce and Zach Jacobs at 4:58 and 3:09, respectively, before Renetta tallied his second goal of the day with 31 seconds remaining to give the visitors a 6-4 lead at halftime.

Junior Matt Dimler (1 g, 1 a) converted a feed from Anthony Merendino on an extra-man opportunity 5:19 into the third period, before Senn netted an unassisted tally with 7:39 remaining in the fourth period to give the Pioneers their largest lead of the day at 8-4.

Tack completed his hat trick by tallying with 5:49 and 4:45 left in the game, but Queens only managed two shots (one on goal) from that point forward as C.W. Post captured the victory. Dello-Iacono made 12 of his 17 saves in the second half, including nine in the third period.

Queens outshot C.W. Post by a 32-26 margin, and held a 34-32 edge in ground balls. The teams combined for 52 turnovers on the day (27 by C.W. Post), though the Pioneers had a 28-of-33 success rate clearing the ball as opposed to a 13-of-21 rate for the host Royals. Queens won 10 of the afternoon's face-offs.

Jez's Pioneers wrap up their Southern swing Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 20), when they play a 3:30 contest at Belmont Abbey.

Score by Period       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  2  4  1  1 -  8
Queens (N.C.).......  1  3  0  2 -  6
 
C.W. Post SCORING:
GOALS: Senn, Charles 2; Renetta, Rob 2; Dimler, Matt 1; Cerar,
       Greg 1; Meo, Joe 1; Merritt, Matt 1.
ASSISTS: Dimler, Matt 1; Merendino, Anthony 1; Senn, Charles 1.
 
Queens (N.C.) SCORING:
GOALS: Tack, Alexander 3; Bryce, Joshua 2; Jacobs, Zach 1.
ASSISTS: Overberg, David 1; Thomas, Cory 1.
 
SHOTS BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  7  9  8  2 - 26
Queens (N.C.).......  3 12 10  7 - 32
 
GROUND BALLS BY PRD   1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  6  8  8 10 - 32
Queens (N.C.).......  9  9  8  8 - 34
 
FACE-OFFS BY PRD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  2-4   2-6   1-2   1-4  -  6-16
Queens (N.C.).......  2-4   4-6   1-2   3-4  - 10-16
 
CLEARS BY PERIOD       1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  6-8   7-7   8-9   7-9  - 28-33
Queens (N.C.).......  4-7   1-2   5-5   3-7  - 13-21
 
EXTRA-MAN OPPS         1     2     3     4     Total
----------------------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  2-2   1-1   1-2   0-0  -  4-5
Queens (N.C.).......  0-0   1-2   0-1   0-0  -  1-3
 
SAVES BY PERIOD       1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  0  5  9  3 - 17
Queens (N.C.).......  2  2  3  1 -  8
 
TURNOVERS BY PRD      1  2  3  4  Tot
-------------------------------------
C.W. Post...........  7  4  6 10 - 27
Queens (N.C.).......  8  4  3 10 - 25
 
PENALTIES - C.W. Post 5/4:00; Queens (N.C.) 6/7:00.

2007-02-18