A week after beating Michigan 9-8 to close out the regular season, Ohio State’s men’s lacrosse team will host the Wolverines for the second time in eight days, this time in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
The Buckeyes will be looking for their first win over Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament since 2022. Ohio State is 5-7 in the Big Ten Tournament all-time, but are the defending champions after taking home their first conference tournament crown last season.
The win over Michigan last
Friday was Ohio State’s second in a row, as they took down Johns Hopkins 7-6 on April 11 in Columbus. Johns Hopkins was ranked 10th in the nation at the time of the loss to the Buckeyes.
Ohio State closed out their regular season schedule playing six of their last eight games against teams ranked in the top-15 in the country. The six goals Johns Hopkins scored were their lowest total of the season in a game.
In last week’s win over the Wolverines, Michigan jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Alex Marinier scored Ohio State’s lone goal of the first quarter with 5:37 left in the first frame.
The Buckeyes started to find their footing in the second quarter with goals from Cullen Brown, Jake Struck, and Liam White to tie the game 4-4 before a Adam Udell gave Michigan a 5-4 lead at halftime.
The second half of the rivalry battle essentially turned into a duel between Logan Soelberg and Adam Udell. Soelberg scored Ohio State’s first two goals of the half with a tally from Udell sandwiched in between the goals.
Jackson Birtwistle gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game with a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter before Udell tied the game back up early in the fourth quarter.
Soelberg would record the first hat trick of his career when he netted his third goal of the game with 6:38 left. Udell would record his fifth goal of the game with 3:45 left on the fourth quarter clock. The game would remain tied until Garrett Haas scored with 3.4 seconds to go to give Ohio State the thrilling victory in front of a sold out home crowd.
The win was Ohio State 10th of the year, giving them back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since 1965-66. The Buckeyes now have 15 seasons of at least 10 wins in program history.
A huge reason why Ohio State has been able to record 10 wins during the regular season despite playing a very tough schedule is because of their suffocating defense. The Buckeyes are allowing just seven goals per game, which is the best mark in the country.
Ohio State is one of just three teams to give up less than eight goals per game this season.
The last line of the defense is goaltender Caleb Fyock, who is 9-3 with a 7.40 goals against average, and .571 save percentage so far this year. For the second straight season the Buckeye keeper is a nominee for the Tewaaraton Award, which is given annually to the most outstanding men’s and women’s American lacrosse players.
Fyock recorded seven saves in the win over Michigan last Friday.
Another excellent defender for Ohio State this year has been Cullen Brown, who is a finalist for the 2026 Big Ten Medal of Honor. Brown holds the Ohio State season and career record for caused turnovers.
The senior from Maryland was named the 2026 Big Ten Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Year, making him the first Buckeye to win the award since Robby Haus in 2016.
When the offense and defense are clicking together, Ohio State is one of the toughest teams to beat in the country. Alex Marinier leads the Buckeyes with 24 goals this season, one more than Garrett Haas has netted.
Haas now has 40 points on the season, making him the second Ohio State player in the last 10 years to post back-to-back 40-point seasons, with Jack Myers being the other in 2022-23.
While Mariner leads the team in goals, the 40 points Haas has recorded are the most on the team. Liam White, Khalif Hocker, and Jackson Walsh are the other Buckeyes with at least 10 goals during the regular season. As a team, Ohio State has scored 133 goals, while only giving up 92 to their opponents in 12 games.
With the loss to the Buckeyes last week, Michigan finished the regular season with a 5-8 record. Saturday’s game from Columbus is scheduled to start at noon and can be seen on B1G+. The winner will move on to the semifinals to take on Johns Hopkins on Thursday.
The semifinals and final of the Big Ten Tournament will be held at Rutgers.
