Men's Lacrosse at No. 14/19 MIT
Wednesday, May 4 | 7 p.m.
Henry G. Steinbrenner '27 Stadium | Cambridge, Mass.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and MIT will meet for the 46th time on Saturday in a series that dates back to 1977.
• The Beavers are 30-15 all-time against the Engineers and have won nine of the last 11 games between the squads.
• The Green and White are 3-0 all-time against MIT in the post-season, including a Pilgrim League semifinal win in 2001 and NEWMAC semifinal victories in 2014 and 2016.
LAST MEETING
• Graduate student Ryan Gebhardt tallied seven points on four goals and three assists and No. 15/17 MIT finished off a perfect regular season with a 16-12 victory over Babson last Saturday in Cambridge.
• Senior Chi Chi Price led the Beavers with four goals, his fifth four-goal outing this season. Graduate student Lee Sipes scored two goals and picked up a team-high five ground balls, first-year Emmett Martin added two goals and junior Matt Stucchi tallied a goal and three assists. Sophomore Brendan Maher caused three turnovers and picked up three ground balls, and first-year Jared Lucich came off the bench and won 14 of 21 face-offs.
• The Engineers also got three goals and an assist from senior Gavin Vanderberg and sophomore Heath Nilsen and three goals from senior Liam Miller. First-year Dylan Nelson chipped in with two goals, senior Ben Dwyer posted a game-high four caused turnovers, and first-year Matthew Sardis won 15 of 28 face-offs in the win.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Fourth-seeded Babson (8-8, 3-3 NEWMAC) is coming off a 15-11 come-from-behind victory over fifth-seeded Emerson in a conference quarterfinal Monday night at rainy MacDowell Field.
• Stucchi tallied a career-high seven points and the Beavers overcame a 6-0 first-quarter deficit to pull out the win. Stucchi finished with three goals and a career-best four assists, sophomore Topher Bower added four goals, and Sipes, Price and Martin chipped in with two goals apiece for the Beavers. Sophomore Grey Sunderland won 20 of 30 face-offs and collected a team-high nine ground balls and senior Mac Mowat made five saves in goal in the win.
• Price (33-8-41) has scored at least four goals five times this spring, Stucchi (19-19-38) leads the team in assists and has 13 over the last five contests, and Sipes (21-7-28) is riding an eight-game points streak and is tied for second on the squad with three man-up goals.
• Sunderland has won 54.6 percent of his face-offs and ranks third in the league with 105 ground balls, senior Drew Thomas (30) and sophomore Brendan Maher (21) have combined for 51 caused turnovers, and senior Mac Mowat ranks third in the conference with a 10.48 goals against average to go along with a .539 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• Top-seeded MIT (14-0, 6-0 NEWMAC), ranked 14th by the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and 19th by Inside Lacrosse, clinched the NEWMAC regular season title with last Saturday's 16-12 win over Babson.
• The Engineers have broken the Institute record for wins in a season, surpassing the previous mark of 12 set in 1969 and tied in 2015 and 2016.
• Gebhardt (74-22-96) leads the NEWMAC in goals and points and tops Division III in goals per game (5.19) and ranks third in points per game (6.86). Vandenberg (41-21-62) and Nilsen (41-20-61) are also among the top eight scorers in the conference. Sardis (248-338) leads the league and ranks fifth nationally in face-off percentage (.734) and third in ground balls per game (12.21).
• Perrino has a team-high 23 caused turnovers and 31 ground balls, and Andrew Johnson (15 CT, 45 GB) is also a top defender. Senior Lukas Drexler-Bruce (.571 sv. pct., 8.16 GAA) has started all 14 MIT games and is second in the conference in both save percentage and goals against average.
THE CHAMPS ARE HERE
• Babson defeated Coast Guard to claim the program's first conference tournament championship in program history, which put an end to its 42-year NCAA Tournament drought.
• To repeat, the Beavers will need to continue a trend that has seen the league's top seed capture the NEWMAC Tournament championship just twice in six tries dating back to 2015.
TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Price produced three straight two-goal games in the Beavers' three postseason contests last spring, while Sipes totaled four goals and two assists for six points in NEWMAC Tournament wins over Clark and Coast Guard.
• Sunderland won 56 percent of his face-offs (41-of-73) and scooped up 27 ground balls, and Mowat posted a 10.02 goals against average while totaling 51 saves and stopping 63 percent of the shots he faced.
POSTSEASON TRENDS
• Babson is 6-1 all-time when scoring 12 or more goals in the conference playoffs, which includes both of last year's victories over Clark in the semifinals (13-8) and Coast Guard in the championship game (15-7) and Monday's win over Emerson (15-11).
• Each of the Beavers' last two NEWMAC Tournament losses have come by a single goal. They fell to Clark 10-9 in a 2019 quarterfinal and suffered a 12-11 OT setback in a 2018 semifinal at Springfield.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Stucchi has at least one point in all 16 games this season.
• The Green and White is 7-1 this season and has won 14 of its last 15 games going back to 2020 when leading at halftime.
• Babson is 8-3 on the year when scoring 10 or more goals and 6-1 when holding its opponents to eight or less.
• The Beavers are 7-2 this spring when registering eight or more caused turnovers.
UP NEXT
• The winner of Wednesday's semifinal game will advance to the championship game against the winner of the other semifinal which features third-seeded Springfield at second-seeded Coast Guard. The highest remaining seed will host the title game on Saturday.
