No. 10/13 Men's Lacrosse vs. Springfield
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Saturday, May 4 | 5 p.m. 
MacDowell Field | Babson Park, Mass. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE
•    Babson and Springfield will meet late Saturday afternoon with the winner earning the NEWMAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 8-32 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to the late 1970s. 
•    The Beavers have won two straight and five of their last seven games against the Pride since 2018. 
•    The Green and White has won three of the last four games played between the teams at MacDowell Field. 
•    Five of the last seven contests between Babson and Springfield have been decided by four goals or fewer. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and Springfield will meet in the conference playoffs for the first time since 2018 and 11th time overall on Saturday. 
•    The Beavers and Pride, who met in the conference final five times between 2011-16, will tangle with a championship on the line for the seventh time dating back to 2001. 
•    Springfield has won each of the 10 previous matchups between the teams in the league playoffs. 

LAST MEETING
•    Graduate student Jared Rainville scored four of his five goals over the final 1:40 of the first quarter and senior Topher Bower scored four times to help the Beavers defeat Springfield, 16-13, in the NEWMAC opener for both teams back on March 16 in Babson Park. 
•    Sophomore Bennett Smith and first-year Luke Wang combined for seven assists and Rainville, senior Ford Carney and junior Alex Fascilla all contributed two caused turnovers for the Beavers, who scored five times in the final 100 seconds of the opening stanza and led 14-6 at halftime. 
•    Matt Webb and Mason Nocito both scored three times, Connor Roberts and Gavin Carzello combined to scoop up nine ground balls, and Toby Oliveira had two forced turnovers for the Pride, which gave up just two second-half goals.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    No. 10 USILA/No. 13 USA Lacrosse Babson (14-3), which is currently third in the NCAA Region I rankings, advanced to its second consecutive NEWMAC Tournament final with a 24-7 rout of fourth-seeded Wheaton in Thursday's semifinals. 
•    Rainville matched his season high with seven goals, Wang scored four times and the duo of graduate student James Turco and Grey Sunderland combined to win 24-of-33 face-offs while collecting 19 ground balls for the Beavers, who pulled away with a nine-goal run that spanned parts of the second and third quarters. 
•    Rainville (68-22-90) ranks 10th in Division III averaging 3.81 goals per game, Bower (16-38-54) and Smith (10-34-44) 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.
•    Turco and Sunderland have combined to win 62.8 percent of their face-offs, senior Brendan Maher leads the team with 20 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 PRIDE 
•    Second-seeded Springfield (7-9) advanced to its eighth NEWMAC Tournament final in the last 10 seasons with an 18-14 win over third-seeded MIT in the semifinals on Thursday night. 
•    Kevin Tierney (4g, 3a) and Brady Soldo (4g, 1a) combined for 12 points, Carzello picked up eight ground balls and Kaden Quirk made 12 saves for the Pride, which trailed 4-0 before outscoring the Engineers 14-4 in the middle quarters. 
•    Jake Degnan (46-9-55) ranks second in the NEWMAC in goals, Nocito (35-18-53) has produced four straight multi-goal games, Tierney (22-31-53) is sixth in the league in assists and Bryan Stensrud (16-18-34) is average 3.40 points per game. 
•    Vincent Scialdone has won 60.2 percent of his face-offs, Carzello ranks fifth in the conference with 73 ground balls, Connor Roberts (26 CT) is averaging 2.00 forced turnovers per game and Quirk has gone 7-8 with a 12.43 goals against average and a .463 save percentage in 16 contests. 

THE MIGHTY QUINN(S)
•    Along with Maher, graduate student Chip Quinn and senior Dillon Quinn have started all 17 games on defense this season for a Babson defense that has allowed nine goals or fewer in nine of the last 10 games. 
•    Chip Quinn (46 GB, 18 CT), who picked up his first two assists of the year in Thursday's win over Wheaton, ranks second on the team in caused turnovers, while Dillon Quinn leads all Beavers' long poles with 49 ground balls and has contributed 16 forced turnovers. 

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
•    Turco (.638) and Sunderland (.631), who rank first and second in the NEWMAC in face-off percentage, went 18-for-32 in the regular season against Scialdone, who ranks third in the conference in face-off winning percentage.
•    Since going 0-for-2 on extra-man opportunities against Springfield, the Beavers have converted 67.7 percent of their man-up chances (21-of-31) and have moved up to fourth in Division III at 55.4 percent for the season. Springfield has allowed opponents to convert on 34.1 percent of its extra-man chances.
•    The Green and White committed just 15 turnovers while the Pride turned the ball over 22 times, 11 of which were forced by Babson, in the regular season matchup between the teams. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Sunderland has won 56.1 percent of his face-offs (134-of-239) while scooping up 83 ground balls in 10 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. 
•    Smith (1-9-10) and Tauss (7-2-9) have combined for 19 points in five postseason games over the last two seasons. 
•    Bower has produced 13 goals and four assists for 17 points in seven postseason outings going back to the 2022 NEWMAC semifinals.  

PUTTING THEIR STAMP ON THE RECORD BOOKS
•    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 69 goals are just two behind Shafer's 1995 single-season record of 71 and he is the first Babson player to reach 90 points over the last 29 seasons.
•    Bower's 38 helpers this season are good for third on the Beavers' single-season list and he ranks fifth in program history in assists (69) and 14th on Babson's career list with 126 points. 
•    Maher has moved into ninth place all-time with 51 caused turnovers.  

POSTSEASON TRENDS 
•    The Beavers, who have won 16 straight games against NEWMAC foes, are looking to become the first back-to-back conference champions since Springfield in 2018 and 2019.
•    Babson has been victorious in its last two NEWMAC Tournament final appearances (2021, 2023) and have won six straight postseason contests at MacDowell Field going back to 2016.
•    Six of the Beavers' last 12 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' 14 victories this spring are a new school record surpassing the 2013 and 2023 squads, which both won 13 games.
•    Babson is 12-0 this season when leading after the first quarter. 
•    The Beavers are 11-0 this season and 28-1 over the last three years when scoring at least 14 goals. 
•    The Green and White is 13-1 this spring when winning at least 50 percent of its face-offs. 
•    Babson is 12-2 on the year when finishing with at least eight caused turnovers. 
•    The Green and White is 11-0 this season when winning the ground ball battle.