ADRIAN, Mich. – The Adrian College men's lacrosse team is set for a truly historic day on Tuesday, April 29 when they host the MIAA Tournament Semifinals for the first time in ten seasons.

The Bulldogs have been on a majestic run this season, setting numerous team and individual records, while also clinching the No. 2 tournament seed for the first time since 2015. After an 11-6 regular season record and a 5-1 MIAA record, the Bulldogs have defied the odds all season on route to where they currently stand.

Adrian mustered non-conference wins over Ohio Northern, Wittenberg, Spalding, Otterbein, Dubuque, and Allegheny early in the year, along with a string of strong performances against nationally-recognized opponents, including Christopher Newport, Kenyon, Transylvania, Baldwin Wallace, and Illinois Wesleyan. Setting the stage for conference play in early April, the Bulldogs entered their MIAA slate with a 6-5 record.

Over the next three weeks, the Bulldogs rallied for five wins in six conference match-ups, defeating Calvin, Kalamazoo, Trine, Alma, and Albion, with their only loss coming to No. 1 seed Hope College back on April 9 in Holland. The 5-1 conference record marked the first accomplishment of that feat for the program since 2015, and the first of Head Coach Brett Wetzel's era, who recently became the winningest coach in Adrian College men's lacrosse program history.

"This has been an incredibly challenging season so far and that's just what we needed," stated Wetzel. "We knew that this was going to be maybe the tightest that the MIAA has ever been from top to bottom so we scheduled some really tough competition out of conference to test ourselves. We really hit our stride right as we were getting into MIAA play and I believe that we've done a great job to this point. The hardest thing to do is beat a team twice, especially twice in less than a week. Last week we had a few bounces go our way and we know that we can't rely on that happening twice in a row. We know we are going to get their best effort on Tuesday and we have to give it everything we've got."

Wetzel also touched on the value of his top players, leadership group, and how crucial they've been towards the team's success so far this season. "This is the best all-around group that we have had here at Adrian in years. Our captains, Cameron Reed, Riley Edwards, and Sam Spangler have done a tremendous job keeping our group focused on that next task, next moment, next game and have done a great job on the field," added Wetzel. "The defense has been rock solid for us this year, led by Spangler in net having the best season of his career. Reed has been as lockdown as they come this season and brought a new level to our face-offs with his wing play and has been excellent in transition. Brandon Hoerauf has been unbelievable in the clear this season, which has really helped to spark our offense. Freshamn, Nico Palazzolo, has been great at the Face-Off dot this year and helped the offense keep their momentum going. Austin Selvage and Derek Hassel have played very well this season and brought their games to new heights. Michael Jonas has been a revelation on the field this season. Everything that we've been working on for the last four seasons is just clicking for him and he's led our offense to do things that we weren't able to do in the last few years. He's having an impact on this program that we have not seen here at Adrian in over a decade."

When the Bulldogs closed their regular season last week with a monumental win over Albion College, and first over the Britons since 2014, the clinching of the No. 2 seed gave them the privilege of bypassing the MIAA Tournament Quarterfinal round and hosting a semifinal match-up at home. The last time the Bulldogs hosted a men's lacrosse MIAA semifinal match-up was ten years ago to the day, back on April 29, 2015 in a 14-6 victory over Alma College. Since then, the Bulldogs have traveled back to the MIAA conference tournament only four times.

The Adrian College men's lacrosse squad will take on the No. 3 seed Albion College Britons tomorrow night at beautiful Docking Stadium with a spot in Friday's MIAA Championship game on the line. The Britons defeated No. 6 seed Kalamazoo over the weekend to advance to the semifinal round. Opening face-off will take place at 7:00 PM on Tuesday evening.

Tickets to Tuesday's contest can be purchased on the MIAA website and a live stream of the battle can be found on Adrian College TV. Fans can also tune in to 96.5 The Cave for a live audio stream.

For more information on the Adrian College men's lacrosse team, follow them on social media, @ACMensLax.