Historic day for Penn State men’s lacrosse as several program records go down

Sunday’s regular-season finale proved to be a historic one for the No. 9 Penn State men’s lacrosse team.

Not only did it cruise past Michigan, which was receiving votes in the latest poll, by a score of 17-13, but it also set or tied numerous program records. It tied the school record for most wins in a season (12), broke the record for most goals scored in a Big Ten game (17) and then watched three other individual records go down.

Rookie attacker Mac O’Keefe scored four goals Sunday to set a freshman record for goals in a season (46). And senior captain Nick Aponte also turned in a nine-point performance (five goals, four assists) to break the school records for both goals and points in a Big Ten contest.

With the victory, the Nittany Lions advance to the four-team Big Ten tournament as the No. 4 seed. They will face No. 5 Maryland, the conference’s top seed, at 5 p.m. Thursday inside Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The winner will face either Ohio State or Johns Hopkins in the conference championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

BTN will air both the semifinals and championship.

Penn State finishes the regular season with a 12-2 overall record but a 3-2 conference mark. It defeated ranked teams such as No. 4 Ohio State, No. 13 Rutgers and No. 15 Villanova — but fell to both No. 5 Maryland and No. 8 Johns Hopkins.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Historic day for Penn State men’s lacrosse as several program records go down."