MEMPHIS - After a wild first quarter, the Rhodes College men's lacrosse defense settled in and the Lynx pulled ahead and stayed ahead to hold off a tough Southwestern team, 12-9, on Sunday afternoon at Crain Field.

The Lynx held a 45-38 advantage in shots including a slight 24-22 advantage in shots on target. Rhodes forced 22 Pirate turnovers and were 23 of 25 in clear attempts. The Lynx also held a 40-33 advantage in ground balls and were 12 of 26 in face offs.

Junior RyanFennelly got started the game with bang, scoring the first goal of the season in 24 seconds for the 1-0 lead. Southwestern responded with two quick back-to-back goals and it was a 2-1 game in the first 41 seconds.

Fennelly immediately picked up his second goal followed by a goal from junior Justin Powers to give Rhodes a 3-2 lead. Southwestern closed the quarter with two straight goals and took a 4-3 lead after one.

Fennelly scored his third goal early in the second quarter to tie things up while junior Steven Yowan scored one minute later to make it 5-4. 

Southwestern evened it up at five midway through the quarter, but senior Matthew Jones closed the half with a big goal to give Rhodes a 6-5 advantage going into the break.

That goal began a string of five straight goals going into the third quarter as sophomore Tyler Milwit opened the scoring one minute into the second half. Fennelly followed with his fourth goal of the day followed by another goal from Milwit. Sophomore John Tooher scored to make it 10-5 as the Lynx scored four goals in five minutes.

The Pirates responded with three straight goals going into the fourth to make it a 10-8, but sophomore David Jones scored midway through the fourth to push the lead back out to three. After on more Pirate goal, Milwit put the finishing touches on the win with his third goal of the game.

Fennelly was outstanding, finishing with four goals and two assists while Milwit added three goals and one assist. Jones also had a goal and an assist while senior Mike Knudsen had an assist. Freshman Elliot Gorski won 10 face offs while freshman J.J. Hoots won a pair.

Freshman James Margraff had ground balls while Fennelly and Knudsen had four. Fennelly also caused four turnovers while Margraff, Hoots, Tooher, and junior John Snyder all had two.

Rhodes moves to 1-0 on the young season. They return to action on Saturday afternoon as they welcome in the DePauw Tigers for a 12 PM matchup at Crain Field.