NCAA Lacrosse Championship 2018: Yale Tops Duke, Earns 1st Title in History

For the first time in school history, Yale is the NCAA men's lacrosse national champion. 

Matt Gaudet scored four goals and Jack Tigh added three more, leading Yale to a 13-11 victory over Duke in Monday's national championship game.

While Duke had racked up three national championships since 2010, Yale had not played in a Final Four since 1990. Gaudet, Tigh and Ben Reeves led an aggressive attack that got Yale a 3-1 lead after the first quarter, and the Bulldogs never trailed.

Yale led by as many as five goals in the second half, with Gaudet scoring two of his four during the frame. Reeves finished with a goal and three assists, while Lucas Colter had a goal and two assists coming off the bench as a reserve.

Gaudet finished the season as the NCAA's leading scorer with 115 points.

Duke valiantly fought back throughout the second half but never got closer than two goals down. After Kevin Quigley got the Blue Devils to a 10-8 deficit with 3:18 left in the third, Colter netted his goal less than two minutes later. It only took Jason Alessi 12 seconds to answer a Justin Guterding goal near the end of the third that had gotten Duke down to an 11-9 deficit.

Joseph Sessa, Brian Telvin and Brendan Rooney also scored goals for Yale.

Duke's effort was led by five different two-goal scorers. Peter Conley, Joe Robertson, Justin Guterding, Joey Manown and Quigley all scored a pair. Brad Smith also scored.

Jack Starr made nine saves in net for the Bulldogs.