No. 20 Men's Lacrosse vs. No. 16/17 Williams
NCAA Tournament | Second Round
Saturday, May 13 | 3 p.m.
Tiger Stadium | Rochester, N.Y.
WHAT TO KNOW
• After capturing its second NEWMAC championship in three seasons last Saturday, Babson is traveling to Rochester Institute of Technology for the second and third rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
• The Beavers open with a regular season rematch against No. 16/17 Williams on Saturday with he winner advancing to face No. 3/3 RIT or Western Connecticut on Sunday.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 0-2 all-time against Williams with both meetings coming over the last two seasons.
• The Beavers suffered a 16-7 loss in Williamstown on April 9, 2022, and were defeated 11-10 by the Ephs back on April 8 in Babson Park.
LAST MEETING
• Nick Bates led all players with three assists and scored a man-up goal with 2:20 remaining to lift Williams to an 11-10 win over Babson on April 8.
• Calvin Caputo and Jesse Shapiro both scored three times for the Ephs, who converted 5-of-6 extra-man opportunity chances in the win.
• Junior Topher Bower had four goals and graduate student Will Spangenberg and senior Chi Chi Price both scored three times for the Beavers, who built an early 4-0 lead and trailed 10-6 going to the fourth quarter.
• Babson finished with the edge in shots (40-26), ground balls (29-22), face-offs won (15-10) and committed five fewer turnovers in the regular season matchup between the teams but Williams scored on 5-of-6 man-up chances while limiting the Beavers to just one goal in six opportunities.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 20 Nike/USA Lacrosse Babson (12-4) has won four straight games and is coming off a 15-14 OT victory over MIT in last Saturday's NEWMAC Tournament final.
• Price scored four times, Spangenberg contributed three goals and two assists and Bower tallied for the third time 1:05 into OT for the Beavers, who forced turnovers on each of the Engineers' final two possessions.
• Spangenberg (45-34-79) has produced at least three points in 15 of 16 games this spring, Price (61-9-70) is averaging 4.25 goals over his last eight games and graduate student Ryan Kenney (45-13-58) has registered six consecutive multi-goal games since being held to a season-low four shots in the loss to Williams five weeks ago.
• Junior Grey Sunderland has won .561 percent of his face-offs and ranks 33rd in Division III in ground balls per game (8.62), classmate Dillon Quinn leads the defense with 33 ground balls and 22 caused turnovers and senior Will Parducci boasts an 11.62 goals against average and a .525 save percentage while making 12.31 saves per game in his 16 starts.
SCOUTING THE EPHS
• No. 16 USILA/No. 17 Nike/USA Lacrosse Williams (10-7) earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after falling to No. 5/5 Middlebury 13-7 in the NESCAC semifinals last Saturday.
• Zachary Romrell scored three times, Calvin Caputo added two goals and one assist and Matthew Freitas finished with 15 saves for the Ephs, who jumped out to an early 5-3 lead and trailed by just one at the break before getting shut out in the second half.
• Caputo (38-18-56) has a goal in 16 straight games and leads the team with seven man-up tallies, Finlay MacKnight (25-21-46) is first on the squad in assists and has at least three points in eight of his last nine outings, and Pearse Glavin (18-10-28) has scored in each of his last seven games.
• Ian Kim has won .424 percent of his face-offs while picking up 51 ground balls, Ian Di Pietro leads the defense with 61 ground balls and 23 caused turnovers and Freitas has posted a 10.17 goals against average and a .579 save percentage and is averaging 13.76 saves over his 17 starts.
BABSON IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Green and White is making its second NCAA Tournament appearance in three seasons and its third in program history.
• The Beavers enter the weekend seeking their first NCAA win after suffering first round losses to Tufts in 2021 (17-9) and UMBC (22-7) in 1979.
WILLIAMS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Ephs are also making their third NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2019 when they upset RIT in the third round to advance to the national quarterfinals for the first time in school history.
NINE BEAVERS NAMED TO NEWMAC ALL-CONFERENCE SQAUDS
• Price was selected as the NEWMAC Player of the Year, Parducci earned NEWMAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and head coach Rocky Batty and his assistants were tabbed as the league's coaching staff of the year on Wednesday.
• Spangenberg, Kenney, senior Hayden Bean and juniors Brendan Maher and Sammy Kalishman joined Price and Parducci on the all-conference first team, while Sunderland and first-year Bennett Smith garnered second-team recognition.
RAISING THEIR GAMES
• Senior Matt Stucchi (15-21-36), who is second on the team in assists, scored twice and dished out five assists to match his career high with seven points against MIT on the way to earning NEWMAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.
• The seven-point outing came on the heels of junior Christian Brofft (12-4-16) exploding for a career-high five goals in the Beavers' NEWMAC semifinal win over Coast Guard last Thursday.
• In addition to his hat trick on Saturday against MIT, Bower (17-16-33) has 10 goals and four assists for 14 points in four games against NESCAC foes this spring.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
• Price (61) ranks second and Spangenberg (45) and Kenney (45) are tied for third on the program's single-season goals list behind only Josh Shaffer '95, who scored 71 goals in 1995.
• Spangenberg's 79 points rank second only to Shaffer, who finished with 102 in 1995, and Price is fourth with 70 points giving the Green and White two players with 70 or more points in the same season for the first time in school history.
• Sunderland ranks second on the program's single-season list in both ground balls (138) and face-off wins (208).
• Parducci's 12 wins match the single-season record set by John Schmidt '99 in 1997 and his 197 saves rank sixth.
MAN-UP SUCCESS
• Since going 1-of-6 against Williams back on April 8, the Beavers have scored in 48.1 percent of its extra-man opportunities (13-of-27) over the last six games.
• Babson went 4-of-4 against MIT last Saturday and 7-for-9 in two NEWMAC Tournament games last week.
BALL SECURITY
• Babson enters the NCAA Tournament ranked seventh in Division III in clearing (.891), which is just percentage points in front of eighth-ranked Williams.
• The Beavers are also 10th in fewest turnovers per game (16.00) while Williams ranks 12th (16.24).
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Each of Babson's last three games have finished with a score of 15-14.
• The Beavers are 4-2 this season in games decided by two goals or fewer.
• Babson is 11-1 on the year when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White is 8-1 when picking up more ground balls than its opponents.
• The Beavers are 5-2 away from home on the year with the losses coming at Bowdoin and Middlebury by a total of just four goals.
• Babson is 8-2 when forcing at least eight turnovers.
• The Beavers are 11-1 when scoring 15 or more goals this spring.
LOOKING AHEAD
• The winner of Saturday's game will face either No. 3/3 RIT or Western Connecticut State on Sunday at 3 p.m.
