Bucknell University Athletics
Men's Lax Takes on No. 1 Loyola Thursday Night on CBS Sports Network
4/16/2014 11:58:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse squad travels to Baltimore to face No. 1 Loyola on Thursday evening in the final contest prior to the Patriot League Tournament for both teams. The 7 p.m. contest at Ridley Athletic Complex will be televised live on the CBS Sports Network, with Dave Ryan and Evan Washburn on the call.
While the Greyhounds (11-1, 7-0 PL) have already clinched the regular-season title and the right to host the semifinals and championship game, Bucknell (7-6, 4-3 PL) still has postseason seeding at stake. The Bison know they will play Colgate in the quarterfinals on Apr. 22, the remaining question is where the game will be played. With a win over Loyola and a Colgate loss to Army on Friday, the Bison would move past Colgate and take the No. 4 seed. That is important, because the fourth seed gets to stay at home for a quarterfinal game against the fifth-place team.
Beyond the seeding implications, the Bison will be trying to enter the postseason on a high note after what has been a challenging season at times. Bucknell has already won two straight to move back over .500, and a win on Thursday would equal the longest winning streak of the season. It would also make Bucknell 2-1 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams. The last time the Bison played the No. 1 team they knocked off Maryland 7-6 in double-overtime in 2006.
The Bison and Greyhounds will be meeting for the first time since 1983. Loyola is 3-0 in the series, with all three meetings coming from 1981-83. The teams were also scheduled to meet in 1984 in Lewisburg, but the game was cancelled due to weather and was not rescheduled.
Bucknell has won its last two games over Mount St, Mary's and Lafayette by a combined 29-7 margin. A dominant 13-1 win over the Leopards last Friday locked up a postseason berth. David Dickson paced the offense, setting career highs for assists (6) and points (9) in a game. Todd Heritage added three goals and an assist and Sean Doyle had two goals and two assists.
Defensively, the Bison forced Lafayette into 25 turnovers and 8-for-22 clearing efficiency. Jackson Place recorded four more caused turnovers and continues to rank second nationally in that category at 2.83 per game. Place earned his second Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week honor of the season on Monday.
Dickson (15-24-39) nudged past Doyle (22-15-37) for the team points lead after his nine-point outing last week. Dickson ranks second in the Patriot League in assists behind Loyola Justin Ward, who has 39. Dickson needs just two more assists to become the fourth Bison player with 100 in his career.
Heritage (20-3-23) has hit the 20-goal plateau for the fourth straight year, and with 116 career goals needs just one more to catch Tom Cusick for the No. 2 spot on the Bucknell all-time list. Thomas Flibotte (18-1-19) and Kyle Shanahan (11-1-12) are also double-digit goal-scorers for the Bison.
Junior Sam Grinberg is enjoying a strong season in his first year as Bucknell's starting goalie. He has a .564 save percentage and an 8.07 goals-against average while starting all 13 games.
Bucknell is averging 9.1 goals per game, even though after Thursday the Bison will have faced six of the top seven defensive teams statistically in Division I lacrosse. Army (1), Lehigh (2), Loyola (4), Bryant (5), Colgate (6) and North Carolina (7) all rank in the top seven nationally in scoring defense, and Bucknell has had to play five of those six teams on the road this season.
Bucknell will look to stay hot on special teams. The EMO unit is 10-for-16 (.625) over the last six games. Loyola takes the fewest penalties in the league at 2.58 per game, however. The Bison are converting at a 45.7% clip on EMO for the season, the No. 2 mark in the Patriot League behind only Loyola at 47.1%.
Loyola brings an 11-game winning streak into Thursday's game. The Greyhounds lost a wild 14-13 overtime verdict at Virginia in the season opener all the way back on Feb, 6, and they have not lost since. Loyola has survived some close calls during the streak, including one-goal wins over Penn State (12-11 OT), Army (7-6), Georgetown (10-9) and Navy (7-6 2OT). Most recently, the Greyhounds belted Boston University 15-6 last Saturday.
In addition to ranking fourth nationally in scoring defense at 7.17 goals per game allowed, Loyola also ranks fifth in scoring offense at 13.25 goals per game. The Greyhounds lead the nation in clearing percentage (.940), which should make for an interesting matchup against Bucknell's 10-man ride, and they also lead the country in fewest turnovers per game at 10.4.
Offensively, Loyola features two of the top scorers in the nation in Ward (12-39-51) and Nikko Pontrello (40-8-48). Pontrello ranks second nationally in goals per game, and Ward ranks No. 2 in assists per game. Brian Schultz (21-10-31) and Kevin Ryan (20-3-23) have also reached the 20-goal plateau.
Loyola has a strong faceoff man in Graham Savio. This week's Patriot League Rookie of the Week is converting at 55.6% on the season, and he leads the team with 55 ground balls. Goalie Jack Runkel ranks third nationally in both save percentage (.608) and goals-against average (7.02).
