Men's Lacrosse at No. 5/5 Middlebury
Sunday, April 16 | 1 p.m.
Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium | Middlebury, Vt.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 0-3 all-time against Middlebury in a series that dates back to 1981.
• The Beavers and Panthers met last season for the first time in 39 years.
LAST MEETING
• Jack Sheehan had four goals and Andrew Ng and Teddy Curran both forced four turnovers to help Middlebury defeat the Beavers, 15-7, on April 10, 2022, in Babson Park.
• Tyler Forbes added three goals, Billy Curtis scored once and dished out four assists and William Munroe won 10-of-12 face-offs for the Panthers, who outscored the Green and White 6-0 in the second quarter.
• Senior Chi Chi Price had two goals and junior Topher Bower added a goal and an assist for the Beavers, who got 16 saves from Mac Mowat '22.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (8-3) stayed unbeaten in NEWMAC play with a 16-9 win at Emerson on Friday night.
• Graduate student Will Spangenberg finished with six goals and one assist for seven points, Price scored three times and graduate student Ryan Kenney added two goals and three assists for the Beavers, who raced out to a 6-0 lead less than seven minutes into the contest.
• Spangenberg (36-24-60) ranks 20th in Division III averaging 5.45 points per game, Kenney (30-12-42) has put up four or more points in eight of 11 starts and Price (38-3-41) has nine multi-goal games and is just three points shy of setting a new single-season career high.
• Junior Grey Sunderland has won .544 percent of his face-offs (123-of-226) and has scooped up 79 ground balls, classmate Dillon Quinn leads the defense with 19 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers, and senior Will Parducci boasts a 10.71 goals against average and a .569 save percentage in 11 starts between the pipes.
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
• No. 5/5 Middlebury (11-1) defeated Colby 22-12 on Saturday to extend its winning streak to four.
• Curtis (2g, 3a), Russell Thorndike (2g, 2a), Logan White (2g, 1a) and Will Zink (2g, 1a) combined for eight goals and seven assists and Garrett Hawthorne won 9-of-14 face-offs for the Panthers, who led 11-5 at halftime.
• Thorndike (28-16-44) has produced nine multi-goal games, William Ryan (27-10-37) has multiple points in eight of his last nine outings and Curtis (11-26-37) is averaging 4.25 points over the last five contests.
• Murnoe has won .498 percent of his face-offs (127-of-255), Luke Simpson leads the defense with 50 ground balls and 28 caused turnovers and Hayden Kern owns a 10.77 goals against average to go along with a .531 save percentage in 12 starts.
PRICE NAMED TO USILA TEAM OF THE WEEK
• After putting up eight goals and two assists for 10 points in games against UMass Boston and Williams, Price was one of 10 players named to the USILA Division III Team of the Week on Tuesday.
• He totaled a career-high seven points on five goals and two assists to surpass 100 points for his career against the Beacons and scored three times in the loss to the Ephs.
SPANGENBERG JOINS ELITE COMPANY
• With his seven-point outing on Friday at Emerson, Spangenberg is now one of just six players in program history to reach 60 points in a season at Babson.
• He is tied with Babson Hall of Famer Chris Grant '81 for seventh on the single-season points list and is the first Beaver since Alex Patinkin '13 in 2013 to hit the 60-point mark.
OH SO CLOSE
• Middlebury will be the fourth NESCAC opponent and the third nationally-ranked program the Beavers have faced this spring.
• The Green and White is 1-2 on the year against NESCAC foes with a 17-10 win over Trinity on March 8 and one-goal losses to No. 10/15 Bowdoin (13-12) on March 28 and Williams (11-10) last Saturday at home.
• Babson is looking for its first nationally-ranked win of the season after falling to then-No. 5/6 Union on February 26 (14-9) and the Polar Bears last month.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 5-1 on the road this season and have outscored their opponents 45-23 in the second and third quarters.
• Babson ranks first in Division III in turnovers per game (14.00) and clearing percentage (.920).
• The Green and White is 8-0 this season and has won 22 of its last 23 games going back to the start of the 2020 campaign when leading at halftime.
• Babson is 5-2 on the year and 12-4 dating back to the start of last season when forcing eight or more turnovers.
UP NEXT
• The Beavers return to NEWMAC play when they host Wheaton next Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
