No. 20/20 Men's Lacrosse at No. 11/13 Union
Sunday, February 25 | 3:00 p.m.
Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium | Schenectady, N.Y.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is looking for its first victory in 15 games against Union in a series that dates back to 2009.
• The Beavers are 0-7 in games played at Union, including a 13-12 overtime setback in 2017 and an 8-4 loss in their last visit in 2022.

LAST MEETING
• Senior Michael Shaw scored four goals as defending national runner-up and No. 5/6 Union overcame a six-goal performance by Babson's Will Spangenberg '23M to pull out a 14-9 victory over the host Beavers on February 26, 2023, at MacDowell Field.
• Spangenberg added an assist to his offensive output, while senior Jacob Tauss collected three assists. Chi Chi Price '23, sophomore Bennett Smith and Ryan Kenney '23M scored one goal each, Nick Solomon '23 had one assist, and Will Parducci '23 made 16 saves in an impressive performance in goal.
• Senior Jake Mabardy tallied two goals and three assists for the Dutchmen, Jake Titus '23 added two goals and Peter Burnes '23 finished with four assists. Seniors Zach Davis, Justin Greene and Nick DeNave and junior Hazen Pike, Matt Blasi and Patrick Reilly scored one goal each and classmate Matthew Paolatto won 14 of 22 face-offs with nine ground balls in the victory. Senior Dan Donohue made 11 saves to earn the win in goal.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 20 USILA/20 Inside Lacrosse Babson (1-0) opened the season last Saturday with a 20-10 victory over Roger Williams in Bristol, R.I.
• Graduate student Jared Rainville (5g, 2a) and senior Topher Bower (2g, 6a) combined for 15 points and Babson rattled off 10 unanswered goals to end the first quarter and begin the second. The Green and White dominated the faceoff X, as graduate student James Turco won 15-of-16 attempts and senior Grey Sunderland won 13-of-17, and both scooped up eight GBs.
• First-year Seamus Rooney registered four goals and two assists in his collegiate debut, junior Colt Bordonaro notched two goals and two assists, and senior Ford Carney was good for a goal and a pair of assists in the win. The Beavers also got two goals each from Tauss and senior Christian Brofft.
• Babson returns 40 players and four All-Conference selections from a team that finished 13-5 overall last season after advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

SCOUTING THE DUTCHMEN
• Union (0-0) is ranked 11th in this week's USILA Division III poll and 13th in the Inside Lacrosse rankings.
• The Dutchmen are making their season debut after posting an 12-7 record last spring and finishing runner-up to RIT in the Liberty League Tournament and advancing to the third round of the NCAA Championships.
• Four seniors, faceoff man Matthew Paolatto, midfielder Zach Davis, goalie Dan Donahue and attackman Peter Kip, earned preseason All-America honors from the USILA, USA Lacrosse Magazine, and/or Inside Lacrosse.
• Just two seasons since finishing as NCAA Division III runner-up, Union has been nationally ranked in every poll since April 1, 2019. Only six Division III teams (Cabrini, Gettysburg, RIT, Salisbury, Tufts, York) have a longer current streak of consecutive national rankings.

FACEOFF SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK
• Turco was recognized as the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Faceoff Specialist of the Week in the first round of spring weekly honors announced on Tuesday.
• A transfer from Division I Lafayette, Turco won 15-of-16 face-offs while grabbing eight ground balls against Roger Williams. He won all 10 of his first-half face-offs as the Beavers gained possession on his first 13 restarts.

BEAVER BITES
• Nine different Babson players recorded multiple points in the victory over Roger Williams, and 16 players picked up at least one ground ball.
• In addition to the faceoff men, graduate student Michael Bazzano scooped up five ground balls and Bordonaro and senior Sammy Kalishman grabbed three each.
• Seven different players caused at least one turnover against the Hawks, including two each by Rainville and graduate student Chip Quinn.

POLL POSITION
• Babson was picked to finish first when the NEWMAC announced its preseason coaches' poll. 
• The Beavers received seven first-place votes to finish ahead of last year's runner-up MIT, while Springfield, Coast Guard and league newcomer Salve Regina rounded out the top five. 

HITTING THE PORTAL
• In addition to its 12-man first-year class, the Beavers added eight transfers, which includes six graduate students, to their roster ahead of the 2024 campaign. 
• Rainville produced 118 points in 31 career games at Connecticut College, while Harrison Ike put up 43 goals and 61 points in 2023 at Trinity. 
• Turco won 248 face-offs in his career at Lafayette, Gus Mazzocca produced 38 points (24g, 14a) in 31 games at Connecticut College, Chip Quinn scooped up 31 ground balls and caused seven turnovers last season at Lynchburg and  Bazzano contributed 56 ground balls and 41 caused turnovers in 45 career games at Kenyon. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 27-2 since the start of the 2020 season when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White are 27-3 going back to the start of 2018 when holding the opponents to eight goals or less.
• Babson is 10-2 since the start of last season when winning at least 50 percent of the faceoffs and 10-1 when winning more ground balls than the opponents.
• Including the win over Roger Williams, the Green and White are 10-2 over the past two years when recording eight or more caused turnovers.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers will play their third straight road game next Saturday, March 2 at No. 20 Williams at 12 p.m.