Men's Lacrosse Hosts Two Top-20 Teams This Week

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse team will face a pair of nationally ranked opponents on home turf this week when No. 6/7 Villanova and No. 16 Boston University come to Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The Bison and Wildcats square off in a non-league game on Tuesday at 3 p.m., and then the Terriers visit on Saturday at 1 p.m. in a key Patriot League matchup. Both games will be streamed on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV.

Bucknell improved to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in Patriot League play with an important road in over Holy Cross on Saturday. The Bison were down 7-2 in the second quarter and in danger of falling to 0-3 in the league, but a 13-goal second half led to an 18-12 victory.

Bucknell has scored double-digit goals in five of its six games this season, with the lone exception being a 13-6 loss to Navy in the most recent home game on March 5. Even with that game included, the Bison are averaging a solid 11.8 goals per game to rank 17th nationally.

Attackman Will Sands, who is this week's Corvias Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week after scoring a career-high seven goals against Holy Cross, leads the team and ranks third in the Patriot League with 24 points on 16 goals and eight assists. His point total also ranks 21st among all Division I players.

Sean Doyle (9-9-18) and Tommy O'Connor (10-7-17) have also been primary scorers for an offense that features six players with seven or more goals. Perhaps overshadowed by Sands' seven-goal performance at Holy Cross was a career-best game for O'Connor, who had four goals and two assists against the Crusaders.

Bucknell continues to be dangerous in extra-man situations, where it ranks second nationally converting at a 63.6 percent rate (7-11). The Bison had given up only one EMO goal all year until Holy Cross went 2-for-3 on Saturday. Still, Bucknell has killed off 10 of 13 penalties on the season.

After struggling against Navy and again in the first quarter at Holy Cross, freshman goalie Christian Klipstein got back to form late in Saturday's game. He made seven of his 12 saves in the fourth quarter, which helped enable Bucknell to complete the comeback victory. Klipstein has an 8.99 goals-against average on the season.

Bucknell also got back to business in the faceoff game after a tough day in that department against Navy. In the Holy Cross game the Bison went 20-for-32 at the X, paced by an 18-for-30 performance by freshman Jarett Witzal. Ground ball whiz Alex Spring picked up a career-high 10 GBs against the Crusaders, giving him a team-high 33 on the season, three more than Matt Gilray. Spring ranks 15th and Gilray 22nd in the nation in ground balls per game, and they also rank second and fourth, respectively, in the Patriot League.

Villanova comes to town on Tuesday boasting its highest national rankings in program history: No. 6 in the USILA Coaches' Poll and No. 7 in the Cascade/Maverik Media Poll. After opening the season with a 13-12 overtime loss to No. 17 Harvard, the Wildcats have rattled off four straight wins over Penn State (19-9), Drexel (14-9), Delaware (23-13) and Penn (16-8).

Villanova is the second-highest scoring team in the country at 16.8 goals per game, and they feature the nation's leading goal-scorer in Princeton transfer Jake Froccaro, who has already hit the net 26 times in five games. Froccaro scored seven goals in the Penn game over the weekend, and he also had an eight-goal game earlier in the year and a 10-goal game during his sophomore season at Yale.

A big reason for Villanova's offensive success has been the play of faceoff man Luke Palmadesso, who has won 69.8 percent of his draws (90-129) while averaging 9.0 ground balls per game. Palmadesso ranks second in the nation in ground balls and fourth in faceoff percentage.

Goalie Dan Willis has a .439 save percentage and a 9.76 GAA.

The Bison are 7-8 against Villanova in a series that dates back to Bucknell's first varsity season in 1968. In fact, the Wildcats were Bucknell's very first opponent on March 30, 1968. The Bison won that one 12-7 to get the program off to a good start.

The last meeting between the two in-state foes came in 2012, when the ninth-ranked Wildcats prevailed 13-12 in overtime in Philadelphia. The previous season, Bucknell won 10-8 in Lewisburg.

Only in its third season of varsity play, Boston University has already vaulted into the top-20 rankings. The Terriers are 16th in both polls this week after starting the season 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the Patriot League. Boston University has league wins over Navy (10-9 2OT) and Colgate (11-6).

Bucknell's faceoff unit will be tested against a top-5 FOGO for the second straight game, as the Terriers' Sam Talkow ranks fifth nationally at 69.7 percent, just percentage points behind Villanova's Palmadesso. Talkow was 18-for-21 in the win over Colgate on Saturday.

Jack Wilson and James Burr lead the team with 14 goals apiece, while Brendan Homire has six goals and 10 assists. While the Terriers average 10.1 goals per game, they allow only 8.4. Goalie Christian Carson-Banister has a .569 save percentage and averages 11.1 saves per game. He was the star of the Navy win with five overtime saves.

Bucknell has split two previous meetings with Boston University. The Bison won 7-3 at home in 2014, and then last season the Terriers scored the final three goals of the game and prevailed 11-9 in Boston.

After this week's home games, the Bison hit the road for a pair of league contests against Loyola and Army West Point.