No. 18 Men's Lacrosse at MIT
Saturday, March 23 | 1:00 p.m.
Roberts Field | Cambridge, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 32-16 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1978.
• The Beavers have won 11 of the last 14 games between the teams, including a pair of 15-14 victories last season. Eight of the last nine contests between the two sides have been decided by three goals or fewer.
• The Green and White have dropped their last four games in Cambridge by a total of 10 goals going back to 2017.

LAST MEETING
• After clinching the regular season title with a 15-14 victory over MIT on the final day, the Beavers duplicated the feat with an overtime verdict by the same score in the NEWMAC title game on May 6, 2023 at MacDowell Field.
• Senior Topher Bower converted a feed from sophomore Bennett Smith 65 seconds into overtime for the game-winner, and Matt Stucchi '23 tallied seven points on two goals and five assists to earn Most Outstanding Player honors. Will Spangenberg '23M finished with three goals and two assists and Chi Chi Price '23 scored four times. Ryan Kenney '23M chipped in with two goals, Smith added a goal and two assists, and Will Parducci '23 made 12 saves in goal in the win.
• Ryan Gebhardt '23M led all scorers with seven goals for the Engineers, while senior Heath Nilsen tallied three goals and an assist and sophomore Zach Bleil contributed a pair of goals. Junior Matthew Sardis won 19-of-32 face-offs and grabbed a game-high 10 ground balls, and Devin McCabe '23 made 16 saves in goal in the loss.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 18 Babson (5-2, 1-0 NEWMAC) extended its winning streak to four games with a 16-13 victory over Springfield last Saturday in the conference opener at MacDowell Field.
• Graduate student Jared Rainville scored five goals and added an assist and Babson withstood a strong second-half Springfield comeback. Bower (4g), first-year Luke Wang (1g, 3a) and Smith (4a) all collected four points for the Beavers. Senior Grey Sunderland won 10-of-18 face-offs and grad student James Turco won 8-of-14, and the duo combined for 11 ground balls. Junior goalie Alex Fascilla made 11 saves for his fifth straight double-digit save performance.
• Rainville (26-8-34) is in the top three in the NEWMAC in both goals and points, and first-year Seamus Rooney (21-7-28) ranks sixth in goals and seventh on points. Smith (2-15-17) and Bower (11-12-23) are both in the top six in the league in assists. Graduate student James Turco leads the NEWMAC in face-off winning percentage (.588) and senior Grey Sunderland is fifth at .547.
• Junior Gavin Bailey (8), senior Brendan Maher (6) grad student Chip Quinn (5) and first-year Bruno Batty (5) are the team leaders in caused turnovers. Fascilla (9.55 GAA, .579 sv. pct) tops the league in goals against average and ranks second in save percentage.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (2-4, 1-0 NEWMAC) is looking to bounce back from a 22-13 loss to No. 9 Bowdoin on Tuesday in Cambridge.
• Bleil scored four goals and added an assist, while Nilsen (3g, 1a) and sophomore Garrett Campagna (1g, 3a) tallied four points each for the Engineers. Senior Bennett Stankovits chipped in with two goals, senior Andrew Palleiko won 13 face-offs and scooped up eight ground balls, and senior Luke Chapman produced four caused turnovers and four ground balls. Grad student David Vapnek made 11 saves in the setback.
• The Engineers have a balanced attack at the top, led by Nilsen (17-12-29), Campagna (10-16-26) and Bleil (16-7-23). Campagna is second in the NEWMAC in assists and all three are in the top 10 in points. Sardis has won 56.7 percent of his face-offs but has missed the last two games. Palleiko has won 39 percent and scooped up a team-high 36 ground balls.
• Chapman is fourth in the conference with nine caused turnovers and scooped up 16 ground balls while junior Brennan Hoppa has caused six turnovers and grabbed 11 ground balls and senior Teague Rice has four CTs and 12 GBs. Vapnek (15.38 GAA, .435 sv. pct) has started all six games in the MIT goal.

VIEW FROM THE TOP
• Saturday's game matches the past two NEWMAC champions, with MIT winning the regular season and tournament titles in 2022 and Babson doing the same in 2023.
• The Engineers edged the Beavers in the 2022 NEWMAC title game in Cambridge, 12-10, and the Green and White repaid the favor with a 15-14 overtime triumph in last year's conference tournament final in Babson Park.
• Babson was picked first in this year's conference preseason coaches' poll with seven of the eight first-place votes, while MIT received the other top vote and finished runner-up.

BEAVER BITES
• Senior Sammy Kalishman recorded a ground ball in each of Babson's last two victories, putting him over the 100 ground balls milestone for his career.
• Rainville has produced points in 35 consecutive games and goals in 34 straight dating back to his career at Connecticut College.
• Smith has a 15-game point streak dating back to last season, and Bower has points in 11 straight.
• Dillon Quinn has scooped up at least one ground ball in 18 of his last 19 games going back to last year.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 4-0 this season and 29-2 since the start of the 2020 season when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White are 2-0 this spring and 29-3 going back to the start of 2018 when holding the opponents to eight goals or less.
• Babson is 4-1 this year and 13-3 since the start of last season when winning at least 50 percent of the faceoffs, and 12-1 since last year when winning more ground balls than the opponents.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers return home to host No. 9 Bowdoin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at MacDowell Field.