St. Ambrose won the inaugural Heart Sports Conference Tournament Championship in men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The Bees got some revenge, defeating the No. 1 seed William Penn, 14-8, to claim the tournament title. With the win, SAU earns the conference's automatic bid in the NAIA National Invitational - their third straight trip. This is also the program's first conference tournament title.

A goal from Cole Danner with seven seconds left in the first half gave St. Ambrose a slight 5-4 advantage heading into the break, and the Bees would never let go of the lead from there.

Coming out of halftime, SAU increased their lead with goals from Michael Shakerin, Makaile Shaddix (from Isaiah Hahn), and Michael Keating (from Edward Loggins) to make it an 8-4 score with 10:58 left in the third. William Penn got on the board in the quarter with 9:14 on the clock to make it a three-score game. The Bees responded with a senior-to-senior connection - Dawson Dickerson found Keating - to put St. Ambrose up 9-5 with 7:08 in the frame. A forced turnover by Nolan Hayes led to another score for SAU. Hayes caused a Statesmen turnover and found Loggins, who raced down the field and found the back of the net to make it 10-5 with 3:52 left in the period. William Penn netted a goal with 23 seconds left for a 10-6 score heading into the final quarter.

The Statesmen scored the first goal of the fourth to make it 10-7 with 14:14 remaining. But the Bees scored the next four goals. Hahn scored unassisted with 10:45 on the clock to push the lead to four. Shaddix then found Tyler Yetka for an SAU goal to make it 12-7 with 8:19 left. Danner then found Keating with 6:42 on the clock to make it a six-goal advantage. With three minutes left, Shakerin found Keating for a man-up goal and a 14-7 lead. William Penn scored with zeros left on the clock to account for the final score, but the celebration was already on for St. Ambrose.

The teams traded goals in the first quarter with Matt Cortopassi and Shakerin scoring for the Bees to make it 2-2 heading into the second quarter. Shaddix gave SAU a 3-2 lead to start the second, but William Penn answered with back-to-back goals to take a 4-3 lead with 6:10 left until halftime. Shaddix tied it up at 4-all with 3:26 remaining, leading to Danner's score with seven seconds left.

Head Coach Jon Paul said, "The boys are buzzing. We are going to enjoy this win tonight, but we are focused on Florida after that."

Keating had four goals and one assist, Shaddix finished with three goals and one assist, and Shakerin had two goals and one assist. Hahn had one goal and two assists, and Danner and Loggins each had one goal and one assist. Cortopassi and Yetka were the other goal scorers for St. Ambrose.

Hayes made 14 saves in net to help slow the William Penn offense. Dickerson, Shaddix, Trent Knight, and Adam Kraft each caused two turnovers. Danner, Hayes, Keating, Dominic Della Vedova, and Lachlan Hodge each caused one. Jack Wiltrout won nine faceoffs and collected eight ground balls.

St. Ambrose will find out who they face in the NAIA National Invitational on April 30 at 5 p.m. on NAIA.org.