No. 10/13 Men's Lacrosse vs. Wheaton
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Thursday, May 2 | 7 p.m. 
MacDowell Field | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 30-9 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1992.
•    The Beavers have dominated as of late winning 14 of the last 15 meetings between the teams. 
•    Each of Babson's last eight victories over the Lyons have come by at least seven goals. 
•    The Green and White has won eight consecutive games versus Wheaton at MacDowell field since 2011. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and Wheaton will meet for the seventh time in the conference playoffs and first since tine 2015 on Thursday night. 
•    The teams have split their previous six league playoff matchups, all of which came in the semifinals between 2008-15. 
•    The home team have been victorious in all six previous matchups between the Beavers and Lyons.

LAST MEETING
•    Junior Max Mallet scored a career-high four goals, the duo of senior Topher Bower and sophomore Bennett Smith combined for seven assists and Babson won 24-of-29 face-offs in a 20-6 win over Wheaton on March 30 in Norton, Mass. 
•    Graduate student Jared Rainville, senior Connor Karsh and first-year Camden Matthews each scored twice and junior Alex Fascilla made 11 saves for the Beavers, who scored 13 straight goals after falling behind 2-0 just 2:04 into the contest. 
•    Cole Reid scored three times and Jacob Wharton contributed three ground balls and three caused turnovers for the Lyons, who got seven saves apiece from Connor Almstrom and John Drew. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 10/13 Babson (13-3) is the top seed in the NEWMAC Tournament for the second consecutive season and has won two straight games after easing past Coast Guard, 13-7, in last Saturday's regular season finale. 
•    Rainville scored four times, senior Jacob Tauss had three goals and Karsh tallied twice for the Beavers, who got 11 saves from senior goalkeeper Bryan Hanley and built an early 7-1 lead before putting the game away with five goal run late in the third quarter. 
•    Rainville (61-21-82) ranks 10th in Division III averaging 3.81 goals per game, Bower (14-36-50) and Smith (10-32-42) are second and third, respectively, in the NEWMAC in assists, and first-year Seamus Rooney (31-11-42) has produced the highest point total by a Babson rookie since 2010.
•    Graduate student James Turco and senior Grey Sunderland have combined to win 61.9 percent of their face-offs, senior Brendan Maher leads the team with 19 caused turnovers and Fascilla is 10-1 as a starter and ranks 22nd in Division III in goals against average (8.78) and 12th nationally with a .618 save percentage. 

SCOUTING THE LYONS
•    Fourth-seeded Wheaton (9=7) defeated fifth-seeded Salve Regina, 8-7, to record its first conference tournament victory since 2012 in Tuesday's NEWMAC quarterfinals. 
•    Charlie Racine and Mike McLaughlin both scored twice and Almstrom made 14 of his season-high 19 saves in the first half for the Lyons, who used a five-goal run to turn a two-goal deficit into an 8-5 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game. 
•    Emmett Edwards (33-16-49) ranks 10th in the NEWMAC in points, Racine (28-11-39) is tied for the team lead with five man-up goals and McLaughlin (18-17-35) leads the squad in assists and has produced at least one point in every game this spring. 
•    Racine and Chris Bodnaruk have won just 38.5 percent of their face-offs, Wharton leads the defense with 48 ground balls and a league-high 39 caused turnovers, and Almstrom is 8-6 in 15 starts on the year and ranks third in the NEWMAC in both goals against average (10.40) and save percentage (.568). 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Sunderland has won 55.3 percent of his face-offs (124-of-224) while scooping up 74 ground balls in nine career postseason games. 
•    Senior Christian Brofft scored a career-high five goals in last year's NEWMAC semifinal win over Coast Guard and totaled eight goals and one assist for nine points in four postseason contests in 2023. 
•    Senior Dillon Quinn contributed 13 ground balls and five caused turnovers, classmate Sammy Kalishman added 12 ground balls and two forced turnovers and Smith (1-7-8) and Tauss (5-1-6) combined for 14 points. 
•    Bower has produced 11 goals and two assists for 13 points in six postseason outings over the last two seasons. 

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    Rainville is one of just three players in Babson history to surpass 60 goals and 80 points in a season joining Josh Shafer '95, who put up 71 goals and 31 assists for 102 points in 1995, and Will Spangenberg M'23, who totaled 48 goals and 39 assists for 87 points last season. 
•    Rainville's 62 goals rank third in single-season program history behind Shafer and Chi Chi Price '23, who pumped in 65 as a senior last year. 
•    Bower's 36 helpers this season are tied for fourth on the Beavers' single-season list and his 67 career assists are the fifth most in program history. 

POSTSEASON TRENDS TO WATCH
•    The Beavers, who have won 15 straight games against NEWMAC foes, are looking to become the first back-to-back conference champions since Springfield in 2018 and 2019.
•    Babson is 7-4 in the conference semifinals going back to 2011 and have won five straight postseason contests at MacDowell Field going back to 2016.
•    Six of the Beavers' last 11 NEWMAC Tournament games have been decided by one or two goals, which includes a pair of 15-14 victories over Coast Guard and MIT last season. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers rank fourth in Division III in man-up offense (.543) and have converted at least one extra-man opportunity in seven consecutive games.
•    The Green and White's 13 wins are the most in regular season history and are tied for the most in school history with the 2013 and 2023 squads.  
•    Babson is 11-0 this season when leading after the first quarter. 
•    The Beavers are 10-0 this season and 27-1 over the last three years when scoring at least 14 goals. 
•    The Green and White is 12-1 this spring when winning at least 50 percent of its face-offs. 
•    Babson is 11-2 on the year when finishing with at least eight caused turnovers. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Thursday's semifinal will take on either second-seeded Springfield or third-seeded MIT on Saturday.