The Virginia Wesleyan University men's lacrosse team (1-0) defeated Methodist for the 2024 season opener 8-5. 

First-year Ben Andrews had a stellar debut scoring four goals and one assist with ten shots, Liam Murphy had two assists, three caused turnovers, and three ground balls, and Mark Sprague recorded one goal on two shots, and had two ground balls. 

Zack Tucker improved to 1-0 on the season, playing 60 minutes in the win, and made 18 saves for the Marlins in net. 

Methodist scored an unassisted goal in the first five minutes of the first quarter. The Marlins offense awoke as Ben Andrews scored back-to-back goals to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. Then, Daniel Auxier scored off a feed from Ben Andrews to increase the host lead to 3-1. Next, at the 4:26 mark in the first quarter, Andrews scored his third goal to extend the Marlins lead to 4-1 at the end of the first quarter. 

Mark Sprague scored an unassisted goal to start the second quarter, but the Monarchs scored a goal two minutes later to bring the score to 5-2. Virginia Wesleyan hit the back of the net with 1:06 left in the first half as Parker Lucas scored off an assist from Liam Murphy to give the Marlins a 6-2 lead going into halftime.

In the third quarter, Jackson Rockhill was the lone scorer for either team and was assisted by Sam Edwards. The Marlins held a 7-2 lead heading into the final frame. 

After being shut out in the third, Methodist scored in the first minute of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 7-3. Ben Andrews scored again with an assist from Liam Murphy to bring the score to 8-3. In the final five minutes of play, the Monarchs scored twice to put them within striking distance of the Marlins, but VWU held strong and won the game 8-5.