Men's Lax Hosts Loyola Saturday at Noon

Loyola (0-9, 0-4 PL) at Bucknell (4-5, 2-3 PL)
When: Saturday, Apr. 5, 12 p.m.
Where: Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell hosts Loyola on Saturday afternoon in a matchup of two teams looking to bounce back after being held in check offensively last week. The Bison went to Lafayette last Friday with the seventh-highest-scoring offense in the nation, but they were held nearly 10 goals under their average in a 14-5 loss to the much-improved Leopards. Loyola, which is an uncharacteristic 0-9 on the season, fell 7-3 at Lehigh last Saturday.
At 2-3 in the Patriot League, the Bison enter the weekend in seventh place, a half-game behind Lehigh and Navy at 2-2.
Michael Meyer (19-26-45) and Connor Davis (30-8-38) have carried much of the scoring load for the Bison this season. Meyer recorded his 100th career point last time out against Lafayette and now has an even 50 goals and 50 assists.
Davis against Lafayette was held without a goal for only the fourth time in his career and without a point for only the second time in four years. Davis has 138 career goals and remains tied with Justin Zackey for the Bucknell career record. Zackey's mark has held up since 1994.
Davis' 138 goals are fourth-most among all active Division I players. Cornell's CJ Kirst has 210, followed by Princeton's Coulter Mackesy with 150 and Pratt Reynolds of Siena with 146. Davis has averaged just under a hat trick (2.94 goals per game) over his career. He is now seventh nationally with 3.33 goals per game this season.
Meyer has already blown by his previous career high of 30 points in a season. Meyer, who had a 10-point game with five goals and five assists at Colgate, ranks sixth nationally in assists (2.89) and ninth in points (5.00) per game.
After missing his first two seasons with injuries, Owen Kovacs has emerged as another top scoring threat on the attack unit. Kovacs has started the last four games and now has 13 goals and three assists on the season. He has scored at least one goal in all but one game, including some spectacular shots. Both of his tallies against Lehigh were behind-the-back attempts, with the first of the two landing him No. 1 on the Patriot League's "Top 3 Plays of the Week" segment.
Despite being held to five goals last week, Bucknell still ranks 11th nationally in scoring at 13.67 goals per game.
Nine Bison have reached double-digit points this season. In addition to Meyer, Davis, and Kovacs, other top scorers are Will Hopkins (10-10-20), Sean Berrigan (7-7-14), Cam Doolan (10-3-13), Anthony Panetti (7-6-13), Luke Brunner (11-2-13), and Peter Grandolfo (7-5-12).

Freshmen Panetti and Sean Kerwick both scored twice in the Lehigh win. Kerwick, the son of assistant coach Matt Kerwick, has seen more time over the last two games and now has four goals on the season.
Close defenseman Will Pickering leads the team with 16 caused turnovers to go with 19 ground balls. Pickering ranks sixth in the Patriot League in CTs with 1.78 per game.
Bucknell's man-up unit is 14-for-31 (.452) on the season. That figure ranks 18th nationally and fourth in the Patriot League to Boston University.
The Bison have done a good job taking care of the ball, as they lead the league in fewest turnovers with 13.78 per game. That is the fourth-best mark in the nation.
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.

Loyola at a Glance

Loyola is traditionally one of the top teams in the country, but the Greyhounds are still seeking their first win of the season. They started the 2025 campaign with three straight losses to ranked foes, including an OT loss to No. 4 Maryland and a 9-8 setback to No. 5 Johns Hopkins. Four of their nine losses are by one goal, and four have come against ranked teams.
Loyola's top scorer is Matthew Minicus (8-18-26), while Henry Haberman (12-6-18) leads the squad in goals. The Greyhounds have uncharacteristically struggled at the offensive end, where they average 7.0 goals per game while shooting at a 21.6 percent clip.
Goalie Max Watkinson is having a strong season with a .556 save percentage. His 13.2 saves per game rank 12th nationally.

The Bucknell-Loyola Series

Bucknell is 3-12 all-time against Loyola, and the Greyhounds bring a six-game series winning streak into Saturday's game.
Bucknell's three wins are all by one goal: 10-9 in OT in 2015, 9-8 in 2OT in 2017, and 12-11 in 2018.
Loyola won 15-13 in Baltimore last season. Bucknell scored nine unanswered goals in the first half and led by as many as five in the third quarter, but Loyola closed the game on a 9-2 run to swipe the win. Michael Meyer (5) and Connor Davis (3) combined to score eight goals for the Bison, and Brendan Coyle went 19-for-30 with 12 ground balls at the faceoff X. Evan James led Loyola with four goals, while Matthew Minicus and Adam Poitras scored three each.
The Greyhounds held on to win 14-13 in the last matchup in Lewisburg in 2013, led by seven goals from Minicus. The Bison had five potential tying shot attempts in the final minutes but couldn't find the back of the net, and then they turned it over on a crease violation with 23 seconds remaining.

Next Up

Bucknell's next two games will be non-conference affairs. The Bison travel to Le Moyne next Tuesday and then will take on Bryant on Saturday, Apr. 12, in Farmingdale, N.Y.

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Players Mentioned

Sean Berrigan

Luke Brunner

Brendan Coyle

Connor Davis

Cam Doolan

Peter Grandolfo

Will Hopkins

Sean Kerwick

Owen Kovacs

Michael Meyer

Anthony Panetti

Will Pickering