Men's Lacrosse at Springfield
NEWMAC Tournament Final
Saturday, May 3 | 12 p.m. 
Stagg Field | Springfield, Mass. 

WHAT'S AT STAKE
•    Babson and Springfield will meet for the second consecutive season in the NEWMAC Tournament final on Saturday afternoon at Stagg Field with the winner punching its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is just 9-33 all-time against Springfield in a series that dates back to the late 1970s. 
•    Despite dropping the regular season matchup between the teams, the Beavers have won six of their last nine games versus the Pride since 2018. 
•    The Green and White has been victorious in two of its last three trips to Springfield but has never won a postseason game at Stagg Field.
•    Six of the last nine games between the teams have been decided by four goals or fewer. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and Springfield will meet in the conference playoffs for the second year in a row and 12th time overall on Saturday. 
•    Saturday's championship game will be the seventh played between the teams since 2011 (2011-16, 2024, 2025) and the eighth going back to 2001. 
•    The Beavers' 19-8 victory in last year's tournament final was their first in program history over the Pride in the postseason. 

LAST MEETING
•    Kevin Tierney (2g, 1a) and Riley Burgmyer (1g, 2a) finished with three points apiece Vincent Scialdone won 11-of-18 face-offs to help the Pride snap Babson's 17-game conference winning streak with a 9-6 victory back on March 15 in Springfield. 
•    Rory Scanlon scored twice, Kaden Quirk made 10 saves and Springfield used a 7-1 run over stretch of 15 minutes in the first half to build an 8-4 lead at the break before then holding the Green and White without a goal over the final 23:38 of the contest. 
•    Sophomore Camden Matthews led all players with three goals, graduate student Topher Bower dished out two assists and senior Alex Fascilla made 10 saves to go along with five ground balls and three caused turnovers for the Beavers, who finished with the edge in both shots (33-27) and ground balls (24-18). 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Second-seeded Babson (12-5) advanced to the conference championship game for the third year in a row with a 17-13 win over third-seeded MIT in Thursday's semifinals. 
•    Graduate student Jacob Tauss scored three times, Matthews and sophomores Andrew Berardi and Sam Sisk each contributed three goals, and junior Will Reading won 23-of-31 face-offs and picked up a career-high 12 ground balls for the Beavers, who scored seven consecutive goals to build an 11-6 lead less than a minute into the third quarter. 
•    Sophomore Seamus Rooney (28-22-50) ranks seventh in the conference in both points and assists, Matthews (32-7-39) is ninth in the NEWMAC in goals, and the quartet of Sisk (19-14-33), junior Bennett Smith (14-13-27), Bower (11-15-26) and graduate student Justin Greene (19-4-23) give the Green and White six players with 20 or more points this spring. 
•    Reading has won .545 percent of his face-offs (176-of-323), graduate student Tripp Clark (49 GB, 21 CT) and senior Brendan Maher (39 GB, 19 CT) have combined to force 40 turnovers, and Fascilla ranks 32nd in Division III in both goals against average (8.89) and save percentage (.576) in his 17 starts. 

SCOUTING THE PRIDE
•    Top-seeded Springfield (10-6) has won three straight games and advanced to the NEWMAC final for the second year in a row by defeating fourth-seeded Salve Regina, 15-9, on Thursday night. 
•    Mason Nocito scored four times, Burgmyer and Tierney both added three goals and one assists, and Scialdone won 13-of-21 face-offs to go along with six ground balls for the Pride, which erased an early 4-1 deficit to pull even at the half before outscoring the Seahawks 9-0 in the third quarter. 
•    Jake Degnan (37-12-49) is tied for eighth in the league in points, Tierney (20-19-39) and Burgmyer (20-16-36) have combined for 40 goals, and Brady Soldo (17-11-28) has produced multiple tallies in four of the last six contests. 
•    Scialdone has won .529 percent of his face-offs (157-of-297), Angus Oliviera (39 GB, 25 CT) leads the team in caused turnovers, Gavin Carzello (53 GB, 13 CT) is first among the squads long poles in ground balls, and Quirk owns a 9.93 goals against average and a .505 save percentage in 16 starts. 

STORYLINES
•    Babson, which became the first NEWMAC program to capture back-to-back tournament championships since Springfield in 2018 and 2019 last May, is looking to become the first to claim three straight titles since the Pride achieved the feat from 2017-19. 
•    Springfield head coach Keith Bugbee, who has won 432 games and made 24 NCAA Tournament appearances, will be coaching in his final NEWMAC championship game after announcing that he will retire following the season back in December. 
•    The Pride will host Saturday's NEWMAC final for the first time since 2017.

BEAVERS IN THE CONFRENCE TOURNAMENT
•    Babson will make its 11th NEWMAC Tournament championship game appearance on Saturday, four of which have come since 2021. 
•    The Beavers are 3-7 all-time in the NEWMAC final but all three wins have come over the last five seasons (2021, 2023, 2024). 
•    Six of Babson's last 14 conference tournament games have been decided by one or two goals. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    Bower has played in 11 postseason games in the past three years and has produced 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points, along with 12 ground balls. Tauss (18-3-21) has played in 10 career post-season games, and Smith (8-14-22) has been in nine games the past two years.
•    Graduate student Sammy Kalishman and Maher have both played in 11 postseason games over the past three years, with Kalishman tallying 24 ground balls and eight caused turnovers along with two goals and two assists, while Maher has contributed 10 caused turnovers and 22 ground balls.
•    Sophomore Luke Wang (9-4-13, 9 GB), classmate Rowan 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 has appeared in four post-season contests over the past two seasons, winning 8-of-16 face-offs and scooping up six ground balls.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
•    In addition to setting a new career high with 12 ground balls in Thursday's win, Reading won a career-best 23 face-offs. 
•    Senior Gavin Bailey picked up a season-high eight ground balls and had two forced turnovers, while Sisk dished out a career-high three assists versus MIT. 
•    Tauss, who returned from injury after missing 13 games between March 1-April 19 against Coast Guard last Saturday, has five goals and one assist for six points since returning to action.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
•    Bower (68-89-157) ranks third in program history in assists and is tied for eighth all-time in points. 
•    Smith (47-73-120) is sixth on the Beavers' all-time list in assists, while Reading (248) ranks fourth in face-off wins. 
•    Kalishman's (169) ranks 12th all-time in ground balls, Maher (74 CT, 155 GB) is sixth in caused turnovers and 14th in ground balls, and Fascilla is now fourth all-time with 22 wins and is currently eighth with 401 saves, all but three of which have come over the last two seasons.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 9-1 this season and 24-2 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 10-2 when leading at halftime.
•    The Green and White 12-0 when scoring at least 10 goals and 7-0 when allowing eight goals or fewer. 
•    The Beavers are 9-1 this season when recording at least eight caused turnovers. 
•    Babson is 2-2 on the year and 4-4 over the last two seasons in games decided by one or two goals.