Lexington, Ky. – The Transylvania men's lacrosse team rang the bell on their 2019 season with a resounding 16-7 win over the Augustana College Vikings on Wednesday evening at Pat Deacon Stadium.

Bryce Lowe and Nic Bailey each posted a hat-trick, the former doing so in his career debut to lead the Pioneers to their first season-opening victory in three seasons.

Luke Garas, making the first start and appearance of his career, registered five goals and claimed his first career win before abdicating the final 26 minutes in goal to Michael Webb, who corralled four saves in his stead.

Transylvania moved to 1-0 on the season while Augustana took its first defeat of the season to drop to 1-1 on the year.

The Pioneers outboxed Augustana in a high-scoring first half before applying the defensive clamps upon the visitors in the second half, outscoring Augustana 5-2 over the final half hour of gameplay.

Lowe signaled the start of the new year with practically no time to spare, scoring 20 seconds after the opening face-off to put the Pioneers up, 1-0. Bray joined in the fireworks with the second goal of the game on the following face-off for a 2-0 Transylvania lead.

Augustana tied up the game less than three minutes later as signs of a high-scoring game began materializing. But Trenton Sneed, the Pioneers' assists leader the past two seasons, fed Quinn Fox for a man-up goal to place the Pioneers ahead, 3-2, giving Transylvania a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the night.

Corbyn Buchart scored the fourth goal of the day for Transylvania with 5:57 left in the first quarter and Kayd Aquino scored the final goal of the quarter with just eight seconds to go to boost Transy to a 5-3 lead.

Transylvania outscored Augustana 6-2 in the second quarter en route to an 11-5 halftime lead. Lowe scored back-to-back goals to start the quarter to achieve his hat trick, and the goals continued to amount for the Pioneers, who exceeded their goals per game average last year by more than four goals in tonight's season opener.

The Pioneers' offense proved sweltering as they outshot Augustana 50 to 22. Transylvania held a ground balls advantage of 43-26 and won the turnover margin difference by seven.

T.J. Toivonen led the Pioneers with eight ground balls and six turnovers, also adding a goal and an assist. Sneed provided another all-around offensive night with two goals and a team-high three assists.

Transylvania is back in action this Saturday, February 23 as the Pioneers host the Rhodes College Lynx at Pat Deacon Stadium. Face-off is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.

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