ASHLAND, Va. -- Seven seconds to victory.

That was the situation for Virginia Wesleyan College's men's lacrosse team Wednesday as the Marlins used only seven seconds in overtime to pull out a thrilling 10-9 victory over the host Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference quarterfinal tournament game.

Senior Adam Nycz (East Aurora, N.Y./Iroquois) fired in the decisive goal off a feed from sophomore Nick Pappas (Edgewater, Md./South River), to send Virginia Wesleyan to its first ODAC semifinal appearance since 2008.  The victory, which avenged a regular-season 8-4 loss to the Jackets in Ashland, improved VWC's record to 10-6, tying the program record for victories.

Virginia Wesleyan advances to play on Saturday, April 28, at Lynchburg College where the Marlins will face the nation's third-ranked Hornets in a 7 p.m. start.  The winner advances to the ODAC title game on Saturday, May 5.

Nycz, who scored the Marlins' final two goals of the game, tallied three overall to increase his season total to 41, the eighth highest total in VWC history.  It improved his career total to 128, only three shy of tying the program record of 131 set by Pete Derby (1995-98).

Senior Travis Puls (Ellicott City, Md./Baltimore Mt. St. Joseph) also scored three goals for VWC in a highly competitive game from the start.  The game featured four lead changes and seven ties.

Randolph-Macon (9-8) opened its largest lead at 2-1 after Tyler Midwinter (Hamilton, Ontario/Barton) scored with 3:11 remaining in the first quarter.  But, Virginia Wesleyan came back strong with three goals over the next five minutes to turn the deficit into a 4-2 lead with 11:45 on the clock in the second quarter.  Ian Shankland (Hampstead, N.C./John T. Hoggard), Pappas, and Puls scored the trio of VWC goals, with Mike Tibbs (Baltimore, Md./Pasadena Northeast) and Mikey Connors (Horseheads, N.Y./Horseheads) assisting on the latter two.

It was the start of a see-saw battle the rest of the way, beginning with three straight goals from the Jackets to push the host team into a 5-4 lead ending the third quarter.

R-MC still led 6-5 three minutes into the fourth quarter when Virginia Wesleyan mounted another scoring charge.  Puls, Andrew Adamson and Kyle Wright scored consecutively to give the Marlins an 8-6 lead with 10:22 on the clock.  The Jackets tied it at 8-8, but Nycz came back for the Marlins to post a 9-8 lead with 1:12 remaining.

Randolph-Macon played a game of beat-the-clock and won however, as Patrick Egan (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) took a pass from Tim Rowe (Roanoke, Va./Hidden Valley) to tie the game at 9-all with only 11 seconds remaining in overtime.

Ball possession was key as the teams entered the four-minute overtime session and Virginia Wesleyan came out on top when Conners won the face-off, scooped up the ground ball and got it into play.  Seconds later Pappas and Nycz combined for the winning goal.

An aggressive Virginia Wesleyan team posted a decisive 45-29 advantage in shots.  R-MC finished with a 36-35 edge in ground balls and a 12-11 edge in face-off wins.  Ry Stanley (Coronado, Calif./Coronado) led VWC with six grounders and Sam Limpert (Magnolia, Del./Caesar Rodney) won nine face-offs.  Junior Corey Bauer (Lititz, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) finished with eight saves.

Midwinter and Egan paced R-MC scoring with three goals each.  Sherif Dorhoud (Woodbridge, Va./T.C. Williams) led the Jackets with eight ground balls and 12 face off wins.  Jason Crawford (Burlington, Ontario/Brock) posted 16 saves.

--AMDG--