SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (4/23/2025) – The Nichols College men's lacrosse team rounded out their 2025 season with a 16-5 loss to in-state conference opponent Western New England University on Wednesday afternoon at Golden Bear Stadium.

The Bison wrap up with a 3-14 (1-7 CNE) overall record, while the Golden Bears improve to 8-9 (5-3 CNE).

Five different Bison picked up goals in Wednesday's loss. Senior CJ Cadigan was the lone one of the bunch to have a multi-goal outing, scoring two goals on the afternoon, while Daniel Lee, Shea Ullo, Joey LaChance and Conor Doherty each scored once. Graduate student Cooper Melvin was the defensive leader for the Bison, causing two turnovers with four ground balls.

At the faceoff X, junior Travis Arnold held his own against the Golden Bears, going 13-for-25 with a game-high nine ground balls. Senior goalkeeper Brady Morgan (3-14) absorbed the loss in the season finale, stopping a season-high 19 shots in the effort.

The Golden Bears started strong scoring three unanswered goals in the first quarter. The Bison broke their silence just over four minutes into the second quarter, with Doherty scoring his 18^th goal of the season, unassisted to make it 3-1. The Golden Bears proceeded to tack on another five unanswered tallies in the frame, expanding their lead to 8-1 at the half.

Nichols owned the first two goals of the third quarter, which came at the 12:36 and 10:17 marks of the period off shots by Lee and Cadigan, with Ellis providing the assist on each. However, WNE made it tougher for the Bison with another 3-0 run to further their lead to 11-3, before Ullo closed out the quarter with sixth of the season to close the gap entering the fourth.

The Golden Bears would run away with the score in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Bison by a 5-2 margin to round out the 16-5 final score. The first of the two goals belonged to Cadigan, his second of the day and 20^th of the season, while freshman Joey LaChance capped off the effort with his third of the season in the final minute. Arnold and Kane Williams each added assists to the fourth quarter goals, respectively.