Men's Lax Takes on Holy Cross Saturday in Worcester

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse team will look to bounce back from a pair of tough conference losses when it travels to Patriot League foe Holy Cross on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game. The contest will be streamed on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV.

The Bison opened the year 3-0, including two wins in New England at Bryant and Fairfield along with a home rout of Delaware in the season opener. But Bucknell has started Patriot League play with losses to Colgate (11-10 OT) and Navy (13-6), and now the Bison look to begin a climb up the league standings against a Crusaders squad that has played much better than its 0-6 record indicates.

Three of Holy Cross' six losses are by one goal, and three have come against ranked opponents. The Crusaders fell 10-9 at home to No. 5 Loyola, 12-11 at Lehigh, and 11-10 in overtime at No. 14 Harvard. Most recently, Holy Cross lost 20-7 at home against No. 5 Brown on Tuesday.

Holy Cross has a distinct Bucknell flavor on its sideline. Second-year head coach Judd Lattimore is a former Bison assistant under Frank Fedorjaka, and two of his former Bucknell players -- Ryan Klipstein and Peter Burke -- are now assistant coaches with the Crusaders. Klipstein, a former All-Patriot League midfielder and co-captain of Bucknell's 2011 Patriot League championship team, is Holy Cross' offensive coordinator and will be trying to solve his brother, Christian Klipstein, who is Bucknell's first-year goalie.

The Bison saw a few early season positive trends reversed in last Saturday's loss to Navy. The Bison came in averaging over 11 goals per game but were held to six by the Midshipmen. Bucknell had been converting well over 60 percent at the faceoff spot, but Navy won 17 of 23, including 9 of 12 in the second half as it broke open a one-goal game by outscoring the Bison 8-2 after intermission.

Will Sands and Sean Doyle lead a balanced scoring attack with identical lines: nine goals, seven assists, 16 points. They are both tied for eighth in the Patriot League in points per game. Tommy O'Connor (6-5-11), Connor O'Hara (7-2-9) and Kyle Shanahan (7-1-8) are other top point-producers for the Bison, who have outscored their opponents 53-47 through five games.

The Bison have two players ranked in the top-25 nationally in ground balls per game. Matt Gilray (5.8) ranks 12th in the country and second in the Patriot League, while Alex Spring (4.6) is 25th nationally and fourth in the conference.

The Bison have been excellent in both man-up and man-down situations so far this season. They have successfully killed off 9 of 10 shorthanded situations to rank third in the nation in that category, and Bucknell ranks fourth nationally in EMO efficiency at 62.5 percent (5-8). Doyle ranks second in the league and 17th in the nation with three man-up goals.

Marc Buermann (12-3-15) and Jon Vogel (11-2-13) are double-digit goal-scorers for Holy Cross, and Sean Wilkinson (7-7-14) is also off to a good start. The Crusaders are converting at a 41.2 percent clip at the faceoff X.

Bucknell is a perfect 25-0 all-time against Holy Cross, but the games have historically been much closer in Worcester. The Bison have won every series home game by at least seven goals, but on the road, Bucknell had to escape with overtime wins in 1994 and 2006, as well as another one-goal win in 2012.

Last season, Holy Cross came to Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium ranked No. 20 nationally after springing upsets over Loyola and Army. But the Bison outscored the Crusaders 10-2 in the middle two quarters and ran away with a 15-6 victory. Sands had a monster game for with three goals and six assists for the Bison, who tied the school record for margin of victory against a ranked opponent.

Following the Holy Cross game, the Bison will play two straight at home against top-20 competition. They host No. 12/13 Villanova in a non-league game on Tuesday at 3 p.m., and then No. 18/19 Boston University comes in for a key Patriot League contest on Saturday at 1 p.m.