Men's Lacrosse vs. MIT
Saturday, March 22 | 1:00 p.m.
MacDowell Field | Babson Park, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 33-16 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1978.
• The Beavers have won 12 of the last 15 games between the teams, although eight of the last 10 contests between the two sides have been decided by three goals or fewer.
• The Green and White have won the last 13 games over the Engineers in Babson Park dating back to 2002. The last MIT win at MacDowell Field was a 9-8 decision in the 2001 ECAC Tournament first round.

LAST MEETING
• Sophomore Seamus Rooney tallied two goals and two assists and No. 18 Babson scored eight of the first nine goals of the second half on the way to a 15-8 victory over MIT on March 23, 2024, at rainy Roberts Field.
• Jared Rainville M'24 and sophomore Camden Matthews scored three goals each, Connor Karsh '24 and sophomore Luke Wang tallied a goal and two assists apiece and graduate student Jacob Tauss scored twice in the win. Senior goalie Alex Fascilla made 14 stops for his sixth straight double-digit save performance.
• Graduate student Jack McCordic led the Engineers with three goals and an assist, while junior Zach Bleil had two goals and an assist and Heath Nilsen '24 finished with a goal and two helpers. David Vapnek M'24 finished with 15 saves in the MIT goal.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (5-2, 0-1 NEWMAC) is coming off an impressive 14-9 victory over No. 14 Middlebury on Tuesday in Sparks, Md.
• Rooney scored three times and dished out two assists and graduate student Justin Greene finished with a season-high four goals for the Beavers. Sophomore Sam Sisk and Matthews both registered two goals and two assists and classmate Anthony Stillwell scored twice to lead a balanced attack. Graduate student Sammy Kalishman scooped up a team-high four ground balls, junior Gavin Bailey caused three turnovers and Fascilla made 12 saves in the win.
• Rooney (14-12-26) has at least one goal in all seven games this season, Matthews (15-3-18) has reached his career high in scoring, and Smith (9-7-16) has a team-high four man-up goals. Stillwell (11-1-12) is third on the team in goals and graduate student Topher Bower (2-10-12) is second on the squad in assists. Senior Will Reading has a .470 face-off percentage (62-132) and collected 31 ground balls.
• Graduate Student Tripp Clark leads the team with 13 caused turnovers and 35 ground balls while Bailey has forced eight turnovers. Fascilla (5-2, 7.94 GAA, .579 sv. pct) ranks 30th in Division III in goals against average.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (3-3, 1-0 NEWMAC), which won its conference opener at Clark last Saturday, 20-8, is looking to bounce back from Tuesday's 20-7 setback at No. 7 Bowdoin.
• Senior Dylan Nelson tallied a goal and an assist for the Engineers, which got one goal from seven different players. Graduate student Andrew Palleiko won 13-of-26 face-offs and grabbed six ground balls, sophomore Ashton Axe caused one turnover and scooped up five GBs, and classmate Stone Smith collected four ground balls. Junior Collin Lung had a busy day in goal, finishing with 16 saves.
• The Engineers have a balanced attack, led by juniors Bryce Metalios (16-2-18), Garrett Campagna (4-13-17) and Bleil (11-3-14) and senior Nick Stiles (10-5-15). Palleiko has won 45.4 percent of his face-offs (54-119) and collected 35 ground balls.
• Axe has a team-high nine caused turnovers and scooped up 21 ground balls. Lung has started all six games between the pipes for the Engineers and has posted a 12.38 goals against average and a .545 save percentage.

FRIENDLY CONFINES
• Babson is off to a 3-1 start at MacDowell Field after going 9-0 at home last season.
• The Beavers are 19-2 at home going back to the start of the 2023 campaign.
• The Green and White had a 15-game home winning streak snapped three weeks ago in a 9-7 loss to Williams.

BABSON VS. THE NEWMAC
• The Beavers had their 17-game conference winning streak snapped in their 9-6 setback at Springfield last Saturday, Babson's first conference loss since falling to MIT in the regular season and tournament final in 2022.
• The Green and White have captured back-to-back NEWMAC regular season and tournament titles since MIT claimed the conference crown in 2022.

STREAKING BEAVERS
• Bower has produced appoint in all seven games this spring to extend his points streak to 39 games.
• Smith has a point in 13 consecutive outings dating back to last year.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS
• Bower has climbed into 10th place on Babson career scoring list with 143 points (59 goals, 84 assists), and he is third on the all-time assist list.
• Smith (42g, 67a, 109pts) has moved up to sixth place on the program's career assists list.
• Senior Brendan Maher is tied for sixth all-time with Drew Thomas '22 with 60 caused turnovers, and graduate student Sammy Kalishman has moved up to 13th on Babson's career list with 148 ground balls.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 4-0 this season when scoring at least 14 goals in a game and 5-0 when reaching double digits in scoring this spring.
• The Beavers are 4-1 this season and 30-2 over the past three seasons when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White are 16-0 over the past three seasons when holding the opponents to eight goals or less.

UP NEXT
• Babson hits the road next Wednesday with a visit to No. 7/6 Bowdoin for a 7 p.m. face-off.