Two Home Games on Tap for Men's Lax, Grinberg Named PL Goalie of Week

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Fresh off a thrilling 9-8 overtime victory over Patriot League rival Lehigh on Saturday, the Bucknell men's lacrosse team has two home games on the docket this week. The Bison will host Fairfield in a non-league game on Tuesday at 3 p.m, and then host 20th-ranked Holy Cross on Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games will be webcast live on the Patriot League Network from Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.

One of the stars of the Lehigh victory was senior goalie Sam Grinberg, who earned Corvias Patriot League Goalie of the Week honors for the second time this season and fifth time in his career. Grinberg made 14 saves while yielding only eight goals against a potent Mountain Hawks offense. His biggest save of the day was a game-saver from close range on Billy Oppenheimer in overtime.

Grinberg ranks third in the Patriot League in both goals-against average (8.07) and save percentage (.574). He ranks 11th and 13th, respectively, among all Division I goalies in those two categories.

Ryan Joseph and Alex Spring both received weekly honorable mention from the Patriot League for their roles in Saturday's victory in Bethlehem. Joseph recorded his third hat trick and fourth multi-goal game of the year with three scores against Lehigh. The last of those was the sudden-death game-winner with 8.9 seconds left in the first overtime period. Spring logged eight ground balls -- one shy of his career high -- and was part of a defense that did not allow a goal for the final 23:26 of the match. Spring's 27 ground balls on the season are third-most in the conference.

Joseph continues to be a great story for the Bison in 2015. The senior co-captain entered the season with 14 career goals, but he already has 12 in five games this year. Joseph ranks sixth in the Patriot League in goals per game. In the Lehigh game, Spring and Joseph hooked up on a rare two-men-down shorthanded goal.

David Dickson has two games under his belt this season after missing the first three with a wrist injury. He logged a goal and four assists against Lehigh and already has three goals and five assists on the season. Dickson now has 147 career points, and on Saturday he passed Tom Cusick, Tom Walther and Pete Keblish to move into sixth place on Bucknell's all-time list.

Sean Doyle has the nation's eighth-longest points streak going at 34 games. He kept the streak alive with his overtime assist on Joseph's goal at Lehigh and now has seven goals and two assists on the season. Freshman Will Sands has seven goals and five assists, and he ranks second on the team in points with 12.

Alex Ryan and Tommy O'Connor picked up their first goals of the year on Saturday. Freshman attackman Connor O'Hara, who recently moved into the starting lineup, has three goals, including a big one in the final minute of the third quarter at Lehigh that tied the game at 8-8.

Bucknell won the faceoff battle against Lehigh 11-10, with Gavin Sullivan going 10-for-20 and Lukas Munoz 1-for-1.

Both opponents this week feature head coaches with Bucknell ties. Fairfield is led by 2003 Bucknell graduate Andy Copelan, who is now in his seventh year at the helm of the Stags. Copelan has a 57-38 record at Fairfield and a 75-53 career mark that includes a two-year stint at Marist in 2004 and 2005 when he was the youngest Division I head coach in the country. At Bucknell, Copeland was an All-Patriot League midfielder and was a member of the program's first NCAA Tournament team in 2001.

Holy Cross first-year head coach Judd Lattimore was an assistant coach at Bucknell for three seasons from 2009-11.

Fairfield comes in with a 2-3 record, but all three losses are one-goal setbacks, and two of them are against opponents currently ranked in the top 20 in Holy Cross and Yale. On Saturday, the Stags hung right with sixth-ranked Yale but fell 9-8 in overtime.

Tristan Sperry leads the team with 18 points on nine goals and nine assists. T.J. Neubauer has a team-high 10 goals. Backed by goalie Brad Nordstrom, the Stags are allowing only 7.8 goals per game while scoring 10.2. They are also winning 57.5 percent at the faceoff X.

This will be fourth all-time meeting between Bucknell and Fairfield. The Stags have won two of the previous three clashes, including a 10-6 win last season in Connecticut. That was a 5-5 game late in the third quarter until Fairfield took control with a 5-0 run. Doyle scored twice and Dickson handed out three assists for the Bison, while Neubauer tallied four goals for Fairfield.

Holy Cross has been one of the nation's biggest surprises, with top-20 league victories over Loyola (13-12) and Army (7-6) in the last three weeks. The Crusaders also boast a 10-9 win over Fairfield, and they will come in with a 3-3 record (2-1 Patriot League) after falling to 10th-ranked Harvard on Monday. Sean Wilkinson (9-7-16) led the team in scoring entering the Harvard game.

Bucknell is 24-0 all-time against Holy Cross, but Army also had been 24-0 before the Crusaders knocked off the Black Knights in Worcester on Saturday. The Bison routed Holy Cross 18-8 on the road last season, led by a career-high eight points (2G, 6A) from Doyle and 12 saves from Grinberg.