SALIBSURY, Md. – The seventh ranked Salisbury University men's lacrosse team opened Capital Athletic Conference play on Tuesday evening earning a convincing 14-3 victory in the semifinal round over number three seeded Christopher Newport University. With the victory the Sea Gulls will advance to their 20th straight CAC championship game on Saturday, May 5.

The last time these two teams met it was a defensive battle but the second act proved to be much different at least for Salisbury (15-3), which netted seven goals in the opening 30 minutes of action en route to semifinal victory. Defensively the maroon and gold were just as equally dominant the second time around causing eight Captains' turnovers while holding them scoreless for nearly 31-minutes of game action.  

Overall, seven different members of the maroon and gold tallied goals in the contest including a season and game-high, four, from Josh Melton while Zach Pompea netted three of his own to record his eighth multi-goal game of the season.  

Pompea opened the games scoring as he found the back of the net just 27 seconds into the contest for the early 1-0 lead finishing off a nice pass from Corey Gwin, who finished the evening with a goal and an assist. Gwin wasted no time getting his name back into the score book netting an unassisted marker at the 13-minute mark of the opening frame.

After Christopher Newport (14-4) managed to get onto the score board early in the second quarter to cut the deficit to just three, 4-1, Melton tallied two straight goals for the Gulls to help give the maroon and gold a 7-1 advantage heading into the locker room.

The Salisbury offense continued to roll in the second half opening the final 30 minutes of action on a 6-0 run before the Captains found the back of the cage again. Five different players found the net during the scoring run led by Melton's two third quarter goals. However, it was defenseman Will Nowesnick that scored the game's most impressive goal finishing off a pass from Brandon Warren. With Christopher Newport locked off in a 10-men ride Nowesnick realized the goalie was out of the net and launched the ball a good 60-yards downfield finding the back of the cage to help push the Sea Gulls lead to 10-1.

The defense overall, turned in another dominating performance holding the Captains to single-digit goals for the second time this season while also holding an opponent to single-digits for the eighth time during the current nine-game win streak. The Sea Gulls were led by Kyle Tucker, who caused a team-best two turnovers while scooping up a team-high five groundballs.

Warren, who picked up his 12th win of the season, tallied his third double-digit save performance of the season recording 10 saves for the evening.

Salisbury will return to action on Saturday, May 5 when it competes for the CAC title taking on the York College of Pennsylvania for the third straight season. A game time has yet to be announced.