No. 20 Men's Lacrosse at No. 3/3 RIT
NCAA Tournament | Third Round
Sunday, May 14 | 3 p.m.
Tiger Stadium | Rochester, N.Y.
SERIES HISTORY
• Sunday's contest will be the first all-time between Babson and RIT.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 20 Nike/USA Lacrosse Babson (13-4) has won five straight games and defeated No. 16/17 Williams, 16-10, to record its first NCAA Tournament victory in Saturday's second round.
• Junior Jacob Tauss (4g), senior Matt Stucchi (2g, 2a) and graduate student Will Spangenberg (1g, 3a) all finished with four points and senior Hayden Bean and junior Dillon Quinn both forced two turnovers for the Beavers, who avenged a one-goal regular season loss to the Ephs back in April.
• Spangenberg (46-37-83) has produced at least three points in 16 of 17 games this spring, senior Chi Chi Price (64-9-73) had a hat trick in Saturday's win and is averaging 4.11 goals over the last nine contests, and graduate student Ryan Kenney (46-13-59) has registered six multi-goal games over his last seven outings dating back to April 14.
• Junior Grey Sunderland has won .561 percent of his face-offs and ranks 33rd in Division III in ground balls per game (8.59), Quinn leads the defense with 40 ground balls and 24 caused turnovers and senior Will Parducci boasts an 11.52 goals against average and a .529 save percentage while making 12.41 saves per game in his 17 starts.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
• No. 3 Nike/USA Lacrosse/No. 3 USILA RIT (20-1) extended its home winning streak to 32 games with a 20-8 victory over Western Connecticut State in Saturday's second round.
• Luke Pilcher and TJ Hendricks both scored three times, Clifford Gaston and Seth Grottenthaler each finished with two goals and one assist and Taylor Jensen forced five turnovers for the Tigers, who outscored the Wolves 14-4 in the middle quarters.
• Pilcher (58-26-84) ranks eighth in Division III with 12 man-up goals, John Mozrall (18-42-60) has at least one assist in nine straight contests and Gaston (45-14-59) has produced 11 straight multi-goal outings for an offense that boasts six players with at least 40 points.
• Ethan Stiles and Nick Farell have combined to win .533 percent of their face-offs, Jensen leads the defense with 78 ground balls and 35 caused turnovers and Will Sterrett is 12-0 with an 8.25 goals against average and a .564 save percentage in 13 games.
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.
• Saturday's win was the first in program history in the national tournament for the Beavers, who suffered first round losses to Tufts in 2021 (17-9) and UMBC (22-7) in 1979.
RIT IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Tigers are making their 13th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and the program's 24th overall.
• After reaching the national semifinals three times (2011, 2014, 2015) and the championship game twice (2013, 2017) over a seven-year stretch, RIT won its first national title in 2021 and became just the fifth school in Division III history to hoist the Walnut and Bronze in back-to-back seasons in 2022.
NINE BEAVERS NAMED TO NEWMAC ALL-CONFERENCE SQUADS
• 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, 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
• Stucchi (17-23-38), who earned NEWMAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors last Saturday with seven points, has contributed four goals and seven assists for 11 points over the last two games.
• Junior Christian Brofft (12-4-16) exploded for a career-high five goals in the Beavers' NEWMAC semifinal win over Coast Guard on May 4 and had a goal and an assist in Saturday's win over Williams.
• Junior Topher Bower (18-17-35) produced a hat trick, which included the game-winning goal in overtime, in the NEWMAC final against MIT and contributed a goal and an assist in the victory over Williams.
• Tauss (16-10-26) scored twice in the opening quarter on the way to notching a career-high four goals in the win against Williams.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
• With Saturday's win, Babson matched the single-season record for wins set back in 2001.
• Price (64) ranks second and Spangenberg (46) and Kenney (46) 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 83 points rank second only to Shaffer, who finished with 102 in 1995, and Price is now third with 73 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 has won single-season school-record 225 face-offs this spring passing the previous mark of 217 set by Phil Russo '15 in 2012, and his 146 ground balls are tied with Christian Ebert '10 for the most in single-season history.
• Parducci's 13 are the most by a Babson goalie in single-season program history and his 211 saves rank fifth.
MAN-UP SUCCESS
• Since going 1-of-6 against Williams back on April 8, the Beavers have scored on 46.4 percent of its extra-man opportunities (13-of-28) over the last seven games.
• Babson went 4-of-4 against MIT last Saturday and is 7-for-10 in three postseason contests.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
• Babson enters the NCAA Tournament ranked seventh in Division III in clearing percentage (.891), while RIT has been even better as it ranks third converting .905 percent of its clears.
• RIT (3rd, 16.65 goals) and Babson (26th, 16.00 goals) both rank among the top 30 in Division III in scoring offense, and the Beavers are 11th committing just 16.29 turnovers per game.
• The Beavers (.534) and Tigers (.526) both win better than half their face-offs and RIT ranks 15th nationally scooping up 41.65 ground balls per game.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Prior to Saturday's win over Williams, each of Babson's previous three games finished with a score of 15-14.
• The Beavers are 4-2 this season in games decided by two goals or fewer.
• Babson is 12-1 on the year when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White is 9-1 when picking up more ground balls than its opponents.
• The Beavers are 6-2 away from home on the year with the losses coming at Bowdoin and Middlebury by a total of just four goals.
• Babson is 9-2 when forcing at least eight turnovers.
• The Beavers are 12-1 when scoring 15 or more goals this spring.
LOOKING AHEAD
• The winner of Sunday's contest will take on either No. 5/6 Middlebury or No. 17/18 Union in the quarterfinals next weekend.
