WINCHESTER, Va. -- Chris Lombardi notched a hat trick, but Shenandoah came back from a 4-3 halftime deficit at halftime to earn a 9-7 win over the Methodist men's lacrosse team on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Monarchs (0-1) held a, slim, 4-3 lead at the break, but could not generate a consistent offense in the second half as SU (2-0) took a 6-5 lead after the third quarter and went on to the two-goal win.
 
Methodist scored the lone goal of the first quarter as Lombardi found twine with two minutes left in the period for a 1-0 lead. In the second quarter, Connor Bishop tied the game on a man-up goal off a feed from Tilghman Sanders just 52 seconds into the period. Jaylen Robinson gave the Monarchs a 3-1 with back-to-back tallies, and Matt Layden's goal at the 8:31 mark of the quarter gave the Monarchs at three-goal lead at 4-1.
 
The Hornets' Aaron Paul answered for SU, scoring twice, including an unassisted goal 1:27 before halftime, to make it a 4-3 game at intermission.
 
In the third quarter, Lombardi scored his second goal of the game, off a feed from Aaron Ward, to push the MU lead to 5-3 midway through the quarter. However, the Hornets would score five goals in succession, including a pair from Sanders to assume an 8-5 lead with 8:57 left in the contest.
 
Lombardi closed the gap to two goals (8-6) with 5:42 to play, but the Monarchs could pull no closer as SU held on in the game's closing minutes.
 
Shenandoah out-shot Methodist, 45-26, and picked up 41 ground balls to the Monarchs' 20. The Hornets also won 11-of-19 face offs and converted 2-of-6 extra man chances. The Monarchs were unsuccessful on their only man-advantage chance.
 
Andrew Chinigo took the loss for the Monarchs, he made 10 saves against nine goals allowed. Ben Judy was the winning goalkeeper, he made 11 saves and allowed seven goals.
 
In addition to Lombardi's three goals, Robinson finished with two. Ward had a goal and an assist. Matt Layden had a team-best four ground balls, and Lombardi and Troy Piorkowski each had three. Layden also forced three turnovers.
 
For Shenandoah, Bishop had three goals and Sanders finished with two goals and two assists. Sanders also had eight ground balls, and Dom Lombardi had seven. Eric Hobby faced four turnovers.
 
The Monarchs return to action next Saturday at Southern Virginia at 3:00 pm.