… in the sexual assault case involving three lacrosse players at Sacred Heart University. They apologized in court to the woman involved. (Background here.)

The 18-year-old female student from New Jersey had been having consensual sex with [one of the players] in a room of SHU’s Roncali dormitory, according to police, when he suddenly held her down on the bed and called out to two fellow lacrosse players.

One of them seems to have come into the room, though it’s not clear he did anything beyond showing up and taking a look. The third seems not to have been involved at all.

UD too hastily judged the Duke lacrosse team when some of its players were accused of rape. She never said “They’re guilty.” But her initial commentary had an accusing tone.

She does not intend to make that mistake in responding to this story.

The attorney for a Sacred Heart University lacrosse player charged with helping two teammates sexually assault a woman says the accusations are a gross exaggeration of alcohol-fueled hijinks.

Wayne Keeney, who represents 19-year-old Timothy Sanders of Ashburn, Va., says Sanders and the 18-year-old female student were having consensual sex when two teammates sneaked into the dorm room as a prank.

But he says the other two students — 19-year-old Nicholas Travers of Smithtown, N.Y., and 18-year-old Zachari Triner of Marshfield, Mass. — had no sexual contact with her. She has said Sanders held her down while the other two raped her.

Police say all three were charged Sunday with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault. Sacred Heart officials declined to comment, but Keeney confirmed all three have been suspended from school and the lacrosse team.