UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Powered by a trio of 5-plus point performances, No. 18 Penn State men's lacrosse (8-6, 2-3) topped Michigan (3-10, 0-5) 14-9 on senior day Saturday afternoon at the Penn State Lacrosse Field. The victory secures the Creator's Trophy and also clinches a spot in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament for the Nittany Lions.Penn State earns the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament and is set to play top-seeded Maryland Thursday, May 5, at 5:30 p.m. live on Big Ten Network at John's Hopkins' Homewood Field.
A total of six Nittany Lions found the scoring column, led by multi-goal outings from four of the six. Penn State's trio of attackmen featuring senior TJ Sanders, junior Nick Aponte and freshman Grant Ament powered the offense, combining for eight goals and nine assists.
Aponte led the way with four goals and one assist while Sanders posted three goals and two assists. Ament rounded out the group with a team-high six assists, while also tallying one goal.
Freshman Kevin Hill scored his first collegiate hat trick with three goals, while junior Mike Sutton added two goals. Redshirt junior Matt Florence totaled one goal.
Ament and Sanders also led the team with four ground balls apiece, while sophomore Mike Aronow finished second on the team with three. Nineteen of 26 Nittany Lions to see the field collected at least one ground ball, with Penn State edging Michigan 33-32 in the category.
Freshman Kevin Fox led the team with a career-high three caused turnovers, while Aronow added two.
Sophomore goalie Will Schreiner tallied 12 saves, making four in the third and fourth quarter for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State also finished 3-for-3 in man-up opportunities, receiving back-to-back extra-man goals from Sutton and Hill in the second quarter.
"It's been a long three weeks -- I thought we played well but when you're not winning that's all you reflect back on as young athletes," head coach Jeff Tambroni said. "To come back and get the final win, with everything riding on the opportunity to go to the post season -- I'm just proud of the way they competed and played today."
The Nittany Lions opened the scoring with a goal Aponte to move ahead 1-0 with 10:05 left in the opening frame. The Wolverines answered back with a pair of goals, scoring one on the EMO to pull ahead, 2-1, with 7:46 remaining in the first quarter.
Penn State came storming back with six unanswered goals as the Nittany Lions held Michigan scoreless for more than 10 minutes on the way to a five-goal lead, 7-2 with 7:45 remaining in the second quarter. Both Sutton and Hill led the way with two goals apiece during the scoring stretch. Michigan answered back with a short-handed goal 12 seconds later to open a 3-1 strike that brought the Wolverines within three, 8-5.
Aponte looked to break up the stretch with an unassisted goal with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter, but Michigan scored with 13 seconds left to send Penn State into halftime leading by three, 9-6.
The Wolverines came out of the intermission firing, scoring back-to-back goals to arrive within one, 9-8 with 12:26 left to play in the third quarter. Penn State regrouped with another offensive surge, using a 5-0 run helped out by goals from Aponte, Sanders, Hill, Florence and Ament to take its largest lead of the game, 14-8, with 8:04 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Michigan looked to spark momentum with a man-up goal at 5:58 in the fourth quarter, but the Nittany Lions held off the Wolverines as time expired to secure the win.