Men's Lacrosse at No. 15/17 MIT
Saturday, April 30 | 11:00 a.m.
Henry G. Steinbrenner '27 Stadium | Cambridge, Mass.

WHAT TO KNOW
• The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's lacrosse regular season comes to close when Babson faces No. 15 USILA/No. 17 Inside Lacrosse MIT Saturday morning in Cambridge.
• A perfect regular season is on the line for MIT, which leads the NEWMAC with a 5-0 mark while Babson is battling for a first-round bye when the conference tournament begins next week.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and MIT will meet for the 45th time on Saturday in a series that dates back to 1977.
• The Beavers are 30-14 all-time against the Engineers and have won nine of the last 10 games between the squads but lost in each of their last two trips to Cambridge.

LAST MEETING
• Luke Gianni won 23-of-26 face-offs and scored the go-ahead goal with 5:52 remaining in the fourth quarter as MIT rallied from a five-goal deficit to edge visiting Babson, 13-12, on April 24, 2019 in Cambridge.
• Matthew MacCune '20 and Mason O'Hanlon '21 both scored three times for the Beavers, while classmate Ethan Carpenter '21 finished with two goals and three assists. Jack Tague '21 and Will Messner '21 both recorded two caused turnovers, Thomas Calvert and Quinn Schomp '21 each scooped up four ground balls, and junior Christopher Aranalde '20 made eight saves in the loss.
• Senior Gavin Vandenberg led all players with five goals and classmate Mark Heatzig scored three times for the Engineers. Gianni won all 13 of his second-half face-offs and scooped up 21 ground balls on the night, while senior Lukas Drexler-Bruce turned away nine shots in the win.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (7-7, 3-2 NEWMAC) is looking to build some momentum after posting a 16-5 conference victory over Wheaton last Saturday in Norton, Mass.
• Sophomore Topher Bower matched his career-high with four goals and Babson jumped out to an 11-1 halftime lead on the way to a 16-5 victory over Wheaton. Senior Peter Chisholm tallied three goals and an assist and sophomore Connor Karsh added three goals for the Beavers. Junior Nick Mitchell contributed two goals and two assists, graduate student Lee Sipes chipped in with two goals and junior Matt Stucchi produced three assists, all in the first quarter.
• Sophomore Grey Sunderland won 16 of 19 face-offs and picked up 10 ground balls, senior Drew Thomas recorded a team-high three caused turnovers and senior Mac Mowat made eight saves on 10 shots in goal in the win.
• Junior Chi Chi Price (27-8-35), Bower (17-13-30), Stucchi (15-12-27) and Sipes (17-7-24) lead a balanced Beaver attack. Sunderland has won 167-of-297 face-offs and leads the team with 95 ground balls.
• Senior Drew Thomas (27 caused turnovers, 27 GB), juniors Kyle Sanborn (14 CT, 33 GB) and Hayden Bean (15 CT, 7 GB) and sophomore Brendan Maher (18 CT, 31 GB) are the top long-pole defenders. Mowat (.554 sv. pct., 10.02 GAA) has started 13 of Babson's 14 games in goal.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (13-0, 5-0 NEWMAC) extended its win streak to 13 with conference victories over Coast Guard (17-10) and Emerson (20-9) the past two Saturdays to clinch the NEWMAC regular season title and top seed in next week's tournament. The Engineers also broke the Institute record for wins in a season as the previous mark of 12 was set in 1969 and tied in 2015 and 2016. 
• Sophomore Heath Nilsen paced MIT's balanced attack with four goals and three assists in the win over Emerson. Grad student Ryan Gebhardt added four goals and one assist, senior Liam Miller and first-year Ethan Robinson scored three goals each, and senior Gavin Vandenberg chipped in with two goals and an assist.
• First-year Matthew Sardis won 16 of 23 face-offs and picked up a team-high 10 ground balls, and junior Chris Perrino had half of the team's six caused turnovers. Senior Lukas Drexler-Bruce had four of MIT's five saves in the first half.
• Gebhardt (70-19-89) leads the NEWMAC in goals and points and tops Division III in goals per game (5.38) and ranks third in points per game (6.85). Vandenberg (38-20-58) and Nilsen (38-19-57) are also among the top eight scorers in the conference. Sardis (233-310) leads the league and ranks fourth nationally in face-off percentage (.752) and second in ground balls per game (12.46).
• Perrino has a team-high 20 caused turnovers and 28 ground balls, and Andrew Johnson (15 CT, 44 GB) is also a top defender. Drexler-Bruce (.578 sv. pct., 7.63 GAA) has started all 13 MIT games and leads the conference in save percentage and ranks second in goals against average.

A LOOK AT THE NEWMAC
• MIT (5-0), which did not play last season, has clinched its first NEWMAC regular season title and top seed in the conference tournament.
• Coast Guard (4-1) is runner-up going into the weekend, followed by Babson (3-2) and Springfield (3-2), who have all clincher playoff berths. Emerson (1-4), Clark (1-4) and Wheaton (1-5) are battling for the fifth and final playoff spot.

BEAVER BITES
• Stucchi has scored at least one point in all 14 games this spring and now has eight multi-point outings on the year, while Karsh has at least one goal in six consecutive games.
• Babson has seen 16 different players score at least two goals this season, and 21 different players score at least once.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 7-0 this spring when leading after three quarters and have won 13 in a row going back to the start of last season.
• The Green and White are 6-1 this spring when holding the opponents to eight goals or fewer, and 25-3 since the start of the 2018 campaign.

UP NEXT
• The NEWMAC Tournament begins Monday with the #4 seed hosting the #5 seed in a first-round game while the top three receive byes. The semifinals are Wednesday at the top two seeds, and the championship game is next Saturday at the highest remaining seed. Babson is the defending champion after earning its first title last spring.