Men's Lacrosse vs. MIT
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Thursday, May 1 | 7:00 p.m.
MacDowell Field | Babson Park, Mass.

WHAT TO KNOW
• Babson will be seeking its third straight NEWMAC Tournament championship and fourth in five years this week, beginning with a post-season contest Thursday at MacDowell Field.
• After receiving a first-round bye, the second-seeded Beavers will host third-seeded MIT in a semifinal matchup at 7 p.m. at MacDowell Field.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 34-16 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1978.
• The Beavers have won 13 of the last 16 games between the teams, although nine of the last 11 contests between the two sides have been decided by three goals or fewer.
• The Green and White have won the last 14 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 Camden Matthews scored a career-high seven goals, including the tying goal with two minutes remaining and the game-winner with 2.3 seconds to play, as Babson edged MIT, 15-14, back on March 22, 2025, at MacDowell Field.
• Graduate student Justin Greene contributed three goals and two assists for the Green and White, sophomore Sam Sisk added two goals and two assists, and classmate Seamus Rooney tallied a game-high three assists. Junior Will Reading won 12-of-16 face-offs and first-year Beck Trafton captured 11-of-16, and Reading, Rooney and senior Riley Shaw shared team-high honors with four ground balls each. Senior Alex Fascilla finished with 12 saves in goal in the victory.
• Junior Bryce Metalios led the visitors with four goals, senior Nick Stiles finished with two goals and an assist, and junior Garrett Campagna added a goal and two assists for the Engineers. Senior Dylan Nelson and first-year Riley Pierce each scored twice, first-year Alexander Shen caused four turnovers and scooped up four ground balls, and junior Collin Lung made 14 saves in the MIT goal in the setback.

LAST YEAR IN THE SEMIFINALS
• Jared Rainville M'24 and sophomore Luke Wang combined for 11 goals and a pair of assists and James Turco M'24 and Grey Sunderland '24 combined to win 24-of-33 face-offs as No. 10/13 and top-seeded Babson rolled past fourth-seeded Wheaton, 24-7, in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal on May 2, 2024, at MacDowell Field.
• Rainville matched his season high with seven goals while Wang scored four goals for the Beavers. Graduate student Topher Bower was good for two goals and two assists, Connor Karsh '24 notched three goals, and grad student Jacob Tauss and sophomore Rowan Mondello chipped in with two goals and an assist each. Chip Quinn M'24 led the defense with three caused turnovers and four ground balls, and Bryan Hanley '24 made five saves in 52 minutes before Randy Castle M'24 made a pair of stops in the last eight minutes in his Babson debut.
• Third-seeded MIT was knocked off by second-seeded Springfield in last year's NEWMAC semifinal in Springfield, 18-14. Heath Nilson '24 finished with three goals and three assists, Campagna had a goal and five assists, and seniors Zach Bleil and Metalios tallied three goals and one assist in the setback. Graduate student Andrew Palleiko won 17-of-34 faceoffs and scooped up 11 ground balls, and David Vapnek M'24 finished with 12 saves in goal.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (11-5, 5-2 NEWMAC) is coming off an 11-9 loss at Coast Guard in the regular season finale last Saturday in New London, Conn.
• Rooney scored three goals and Tauss and Barlow finished with two goals and an assist each for the Beavers, who led 7-6 after three quarters. Matthews scored twice, Reading scooped up seven ground balls after winning 9-of-19 face-offs, and senior Brendan Maher caused three turnovers and grabbed four ground balls. Fascilla made 11 saves in goal in the setback.
• Rooney (27-21-48) ranks sixth in the league in assists and eighth in points, Matthews (30-7-37) leads the team and ranks ninth in the NEWMAC in goals, and Sisk (17-11-28), junior Bennett Smith (13-12-25), Bower (10-14-24) and Greene (19-4-24) give the Beavers six players with at least 23 points.
• Reading has won .524 percent of his face-offs (153-of-292), graduate student Tripp Clark leads the defense with 45 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers, and Fascilla ranks first in the league among qualified goalkeepers in both goals against average (8.79) and save percentage (.581) in 16 starts this spring.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (7-7, 5-2 NEWMAC) brings a two-game winning streak into the tournament, including a 16-10 victory over Salve Regina in the regular season finale last Saturday in Newport, R.I.
• Bleil led the Engineers with a career-high seven points on four goals and three assists, Campagna finished with three goals and two assists, and Metalios and junior CJ Sanchez added three goals and an assist for MIT, which used a six-goal surge to start the fourth quarter to secure the win. Sanchez and senior Patrick Timons caused two turnovers each, senior Brennan Hoppa (5) and Sanchez combined for nine ground balls, and Lung made seven saves between the pipes.
• Campagna (16-34-50) ranks second in the NEWMAC in assists, Bleil (29-15-44) is second on the team in points, and Metalios (32-6-38) and Stiles (30-11-41) lead the team in goals. Sanchez (17-17-33) is second on the team in assists and fifth in points.
• Palleiko is the team's top face-off man, winning 42.1 percent (67-of-159), Hoppa has 39 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers, and sophomore Ashton Axe has 37 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers. Lung has started all 14 games between the pipes and has posted a 12.18 goals against average and a .480 save percentage with 142 saves.

CONFERENCE TOURNEY HISTORY
• Babson is making its 25th appearance in the NEWMAC Tournament semifinals since 1999, going 3-1 since 2021, 7-4 since 2011 and 10-13 overall.
• The Green and White have captured six conference championships in program history, three prior to the formation of the NEWMAC (1979, 1980, 1990) and three in the NEWMAC (2021, 2023, 2024).
• Six of the Beavers' last 13 NEWMAC Tournament games have been decided by one or two goals, which includes a pair of 15-14 victories over Coast Guard and MIT in 2023.

BABSON VS. THE NEWMAC
• The Beavers are 21-2 against conference opponents dating back to the beginning of the 2023 season.
• The Green and White have outscored the NEWMAC opponents 94-58 in the seven games this season.

FRIENDLY CONFINES
• Babson is 8-1 at MacDowell Field and 17-1 at home over the last two seasons.
• The Beavers are 19-2 at home going back to the start of the 2023 campaign.
• The Green and White have outscored their opponents 135-72 in the nine games this spring.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Bower has played in 10 post-season games in the past three years and has produced 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points, along with 11 ground balls. Tauss (15-3-18) has played in nine career post-season games, and Smith (7-13-20) has been in eight games the past two years.
• Graduate student Sammy Kalishman and Maher have played in 10 post-season games over the past three years, with Kalishman tallying 23 ground balls and six caused turnovers along with a goal and two assists, while Maher has contributed nine caused turnovers and 21 ground balls.
• Wang (9-4-13, 9 GB), Mondello (5-1-6), and Matthews (2-2-4) played all four postseason games for the Beavers last season; Mondello tallied all of his points in the two NEWMAC contests and Matthews had his points in the two NCAA games.
• Reading appeared in four post-season contests over the past two seasons, winning 8-of-16 face-offs and scooping up six ground balls.

IN THE CLEAR
• Babson enters the NEWMAC Tournament ranked eighth in Division III with a .901 clearing percentage. 
•    The Beavers have converted 144-of-158 clears (91.1 percent) in league play and have gone 111-of-120 for a .925 conversion rate over their last five contests against Clark, Salve Regina, Emerson, Wheaton and Coast Guard.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Bower (67-88-155) ranks third in program history in assists and ninth all-time in points. 
• Smith (46-72-118) is sixth on the Beavers' all-time list in assists, while Reading (225-441) ranks fourth in face-off wins. 
• Kalishman's (168) ranks 12th all-time in ground balls, Maher (73 CT, 154 GB) is sixth in caused turnovers and 14th in ground balls, and Fascilla is tied for fourth place all-time with 22 wins and is currently eighth with 391 saves, all but three of which have come over the last two seasons.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 8-1 this season and 23-2 over the last two seasons when winning at least half the faceoffs. 
• Babson is 7-1 on the year when leading after the first quarter and 9-2 when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White 11-0 when scoring at least 10 goals and 7-0 when allowing eight goals or fewer.
• The Beavers are 8-1 this season when recording at least eight caused turnovers. 

UP NEXT
• The winner of Thursday's game will advance to face the winner of the other semifinal between top-seeded Springfield and either fourth-seeded Salve Regina or fifth-seeded Coast Guard in the NEWMAC championship game on Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed.