Bison Men Host Lehigh Saturday in First Leg of Lax Doubleheader at Christy

Lehigh (2-5, 1-1 PL) at Bucknell (3-4, 1-2 PL)
When: Saturday, March 22, 12 p.m.
Where: Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Fresh off a thrilling 18-17 win at No. 15 Colgate, the Bison return home on Saturday to face Patriot League rival Lehigh at noon. The contest is the first leg of a lax doubleheader at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, as the Bucknell women will follow against Navy at 3 p.m.
The Bison dropped their first two Patriot League contests to Holy Cross and Boston University, but the Colgate win has them right back in the thick of the postseason race with five league games still to play.
Saturday's game in Hamilton was a wild one. Bucknell raced out to an 8-3 lead, Colgate responded with seven straight goals in the second quarter and led 13-9 five minutes into the third, and then the Bison used a 5-1 run to get level. In the fourth quarter the game was tied at 14-14, 15-15, 16-16, and 17-17. Michael Meyer, who had a monster game with 10 points on five goals and five assists, scored the last three of those game-tying goals, and then Connor Davis tallied the game-winner with 4:01 to play.
Meyer (5-5-10) and Davis (3-4-7) combined for eight goals and nine assists on the day. Meyer's career-best points output led to a Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week citation on Monday. Davis' four assists were a career high.
Davis now has 137 career goals, leaving him one short of Justin Zackey's school record that has been in the books since 1994. He is also up to 160 career points, which ranks eighth all-time at Bucknell.
Bucknell's offense has been flying right from the start of the season, when it opened with back-to-back 20-goal games for the first time in team history. After hanging 18 on Colgate last week, the Bison rank sixth nationally and second in the Patriot League in goals per game (15.3).
Bucknell also leads the nation in assists per game (10.3) and ranks third in points (25.6), fifth in fewest turnovers (14.0), eighth in man-up offense (.560), and 15th in ground balls (33.7).
Meyer (18-22-40) and Davis (29-7-36) both rank among the nation's top individual point-producers. Davis ranks second nationally in goals per game (4.14), just a shade behind Cornell's CJ Kirst (4.67). Three of the top five goal-scorers in the country are from the Patriot League, with Army's Brayden Fountain fourth (3.57) and Colgate's Jack Turner fifth (3.50).
In terms of total goals, Davis ranks second behind Bellarmine's John Alie, who has 36 in 11 games.
Meanwhile, Meyer ranks fourth nationally in assists per game (3.14) and sixth in points per game (5.71). He is trying to become only the fourth Bison ever to record a 30-30 season. The others were Jon Romm (45-31-76) in 1990, Chris Cara (38-40-78) in 2004, and Billy Eisenreich (34-32-66) in 2012.
The Bison have gotten plenty of offensive support beyond Meyer and Davis, with seven others recording at least 10 points thus far: Will Hopkins (8-8-16), Owen Kovacs (11-3-14), Sean Berrigan (6-7-13), Cam Doolan (8-3-11), Peter Grandolfo (7-4-11), Luke Brunner (8-2-10), and Anthony Panetti (5-5-10).
Brunner made his first career start in the midfield and gave the Bison a big lift at Colgate, scoring three times in the third quarter to help spark the comeback. It was his second hat trick of the season, with the other coming at St. Bonaventure on Feb. 8.
In a game that saw 35 goals go on the board, it was goalie Luke Renaud who saved the day for the Bison in the final minute at Colgate. He made two critical stops with Bucknell protecting an 18-17 lead, the last coming right at the final horn on a point-blank shot on the crease.
Renaud and Jaz Zanelli have shared time in goal this season. Zanelli has made five starts and has 46 saves with 49 goals against. Renaud started the first two games of the season when Zanelli was injured and has played in four others off the bench. He has a 3-1 record with 38 saves and 35 goals allowed.
Defenseman Will Pickering ranks fifth in the Patriot League with 2.0 caused turnovers per game.
Defensive middies John Young and Jack Tully are tied for the team lead in ground balls with 23.
Head coach Frank Fedorjaka is in his 20th season as Bucknell's head coach. After two stints as an assistant under Hall-of-Famer Sid Jamieson, Fedorjaka succeeded Jamieson after his retirement in 2006. Jamieson founded Bucknell's varsity lacrosse program in 1968, and Bucknell has had only two head coaches in the 57-year history of the program.

Lehigh at a Glance

Lehigh was picked second in the Patriot League preseason poll after winning the Patriot League championship in 2024. The Mountain Hawks went 6-2 in PL play, and as the No. 2 seed defeated Navy (12-8) and Boston University (11-10) to claim the title. Lehigh fell 13-10 to Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Mountain Hawks led that game 10-9 with six minutes to play, but the Blue Jays scored the final four goals.
This year's Lehigh squad got out to an 0-4 start against a tough schedule, falling to Rutgers (10-6), Fairfield (10-7), Cornell (18-10) and Richmond (9-8). The Mountain Hawks bounced back with wins over Villanova (10-7) and No. 18 Navy (13-8) before falling 13-4 to No. 3 Army last Saturday in Bethlehem.
Lehigh is the Patriot League's No. 1 faceoff team. Its .604 FO% leads the league and ranks ninth nationally. Sean Dow is ninth-best individually in Division I at .630. Dow's 6.7 ground balls per game also lead the league and rank 13th nationally.
Richard Checo ranks second nationally with 3.0 caused turnovers per game.
Goalie Kasey Heath is second in the nation in saves per game (14.4) and 18th in save percentage (.574) in his first season as a starter. Heath has played every minute in goal for Lehigh and has recorded double-digit saves in every game with a high of 20 against Cornell.
Lehigh averages 8.3 goals per game as a team. Dakota Eierman (14-3-17), Luke Breslin (8-7-15), and Andrew Kelly (10-4-14) are the top point-producers.
Kelly could be going up against former high school teammate and classmate Will Pickering on Saturday. The Lehigh attackman and Bucknell defenseman are both juniors and graduates of La Salle College High School in Philadelphia.

The Bucknell-Lehigh Series

Bucknell holds a 38-20 lead in an all-time series that dates back to 1969, but Lehigh has won the last five in a row.
Lehigh won a 9-8 defensive struggle in Bethlehem last season. Neither team led by more than two goals all day, and Bucknell hung around despite Lehigh's 15-6 edge in faceoffs. Connor Davis, Michael Meyer, and Hans Huber scored two goals each for the Bison.
Bucknell's last series win was a 12-10 verdict in Bethlehem in 2019. Tommy Sopko and Will Yorke both had three goals and two assists, and Christian Klipstein made six of his 15 saves in the fourth quarter.
Bucknell's last home win over Lehigh came in 2018. The 14-7 victory over the 19th-ranked Mountain Hawks was Bucknell's last win over a ranked foe until last Saturday's shootout at Colgate.

Next Up

Bucknell hits the road again next week, traveling to Lafayette for a Friday-night affair in Easton. The 7:30 p.m. game will air on ESPN+

Bison Men Host Lehigh Saturday in First Leg of Lax Doubleheader at Christy

Players Mentioned

Sean Berrigan

Luke Brunner

Connor Davis

Cam Doolan

Peter Grandolfo

Will Hopkins

Hans Huber

Owen Kovacs

Michael Meyer

Anthony Panetti

Will Pickering

Luke Renaud

Jack Tully

John Young

Jaz Zanelli

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