Winchester, Va. -- University of Lynchburg men's lacrosse freshman Spencer Vandenberg scored a hat trick in a road win over Shenandoah Wednesday night. 

Vandenberg scored his 13th, 14th, and 15th goals of the season in No. 10 Lynchburg's 18-7 conference win. 

RJ Barnes earned his first-Lynchburg start and netted his first-Lynchburg goal to begin the game. The senior's score opened up a six-goal run at the beginning of the game. Riley Hastings scored the sixth goal of the streak. He assisted on Jake Rust's and Vandenberg's goals.

Lynchburg scored three goals on the run in the first and three more in the second. After Shenandoah interrupted the flurry of Lynchburg scores in period-No. 2, Lynchburg responded with seven more and took a 13-2 lead into halftime. Lynchburg's 10 goals in the second quarter marked its most in a period since hanging 11 on Guilford in the first quarter on April 13, 2022.

Hastings and Rust scored man-up goals in the second, and Grant Voigt scored a man-down goal. Riley Mitchell scored Lynchburg's only-other man-down goal on the season on March 10 against Stevenson. 

Vandenberg tallied Lynchburg's 13th and final goal of the opening half to secure his third-straight hat trick. He has scored 14 goals over the past six contests and is in a three-way tie with Hastings and Finn Schmidt for the team lead in goals. 

Lynchburg's leading scorer, Riley Mitchell, scored once and dished out two assists in the first half. 

Shenandoah outscored Lynchburg 4-3 in the third quarter. AJ Stratton and Ethan Cotter scored in the fourth capping off Lynchburg's win over Shenandoah. 

Lynchburg is 13-0 against the northern Hornets with 10 double-digit victories. 

All four of Lynchburg's goalies made saves, and Tyler Hadley led the way with seven. He boasted a 77.8% save percentage. Patrick Moore, Andrew Miller, and Chase Wesley earned time in goal as well. Wesley made three saves on four shots in only 4:33 of action at the end of the game. 

Chris Darminio led the team with nine ground balls. He is second on the team with 60 ground balls on the season. Michael Kraus leads the way with 72. Kraus won 12-17 (70.6%) of his faceoffs, and Riley Frankel won 5-9 (55.6%). Frankel has won 80.5% (33-41) of his faceoffs on the year.

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--LYN--