Men's Lacrosse Wraps up Regular Season Friday vs. UMBC at Messiah; Kovacs Named to USILA Team of Week

Friday, April 24

Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Messiah College)

3 p.m.

Bucknell University

UMBC

Photo by: Steven Schoenfelder

Men's Lacrosse Wraps up Regular Season Friday vs. UMBC at Messiah; Kovacs Named to USILA Team of Week

4/22/2026 5:06:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

UMBC (5-6, 4-2 AE) at Bucknell (8-5, 4-4 PL)
When: Friday, Apr. 24, 3 p.m.
Where: Witmer Family Lacrosse Stadium, Messiah University, Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison wrap up the 2026 regular season with a non-league game against UMBC on Friday at Messiah University. Bucknell and UMBC both play in conferences with an odd number of teams, and they matched up this week with their byes falling on the final weekend of the campaign.
Both teams will be doing some scoreboard watching after the game. Bucknell wrapped up Patriot League play with a 15-13 Senior Day win over Holy Cross last Saturday. That left the Bison with a 4-4 league record and sole possession of fifth place in the standings. The top six teams qualify for the Patriot League Tournament, and the No. 3 and 4 seeds host first-round games next Tuesday.
The Bison have not yet clinched a tournament berth, but they also have a chance to be the No. 4 seed and play a home game on Tuesday. The one scenario that would put Bucknell out of the playoffs would be wins by 4-3 Colgate (at 5-2 Army) AND 3-4 Navy (home vs. 5-2 Loyola) AND 3-4 Lehigh (at 1-6 Lafayette).
Winners of four straight games, UMBC has secured one of the four spots in the America East Championship. UAlbany is 5-0 and has locked up the No. 1 seed, and UMBC (4-2), Bryant (3-2), and Vermont (3-2) have all clinched spots in the field. The Retrievers will be rooting for a Vermont loss to Binghamton (1-4) to hang on to the No. 2 seed.
In last week's game against Holy Cross, the Bison broke open a tight game with a big third-quarter run and then withstood a fourth-quarter rally from the Crusaders. Bucknell led 9-7 at the half after a 12-goal second quarter. After Holy Cross scored the first goal of the second half, Owen Kovacs notched two in a row to ignite a 5-1 Bucknell run. The Crusaders pulled within two with 3:33 to go, but the Bison defense came up with a couple of big stops to secure the win.
Of Bucknell's 15 goals against Holy Cross, 14 were assisted. The Bison rank ninth nationally in assists per game (8.23) and 21st in goals per game (12.62). On the season, 65.9% of the team's goals have been set up by an assist.
Kovacs had a monster day with five goals on six shots, and he added two assists to give him a career-high seven points, and on Wednesday he was named to the USLIA Team of the Week. Kovacs now has 19 goals in his last six games and 29 on the season, and he has moved into the top 10 in the Patriot League in goals per game (2.23). He now ranks 24th nationally with a .426 shooting percentage, an outstanding figure for a player who snipes many of his goals from the perimeter.
Michael Meyer (34-18-52) continues to rank among the league's top point-producers. He is fourth in the league in points per game (4.0) and eighth in goals per game (2.62). Meyer has hit the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career, and he has now reached 50 points for the second year in a row.
Meyer had multiple points in every game this season until being held to just one goal against Army. He bounced back with a four-point day at Boston University and then added a goal and two assists against Holy Cross. He had a six-goal game against Robert Morris and a six-assist outing against Colgate earlier in the year. Meyer and Boston University's Timothy Shannehan are the only two players in the country to have both a six-goal and a six-assist game this season.
Meyer has surpassed the 150-point mark in his career (91-73-164). He is now ninth on Bucknell's career points list and eighth on the career assists chart. He needs six more goals to jump into the top 10 on that chart and nine to become the eighth 100-goal scorer in team history.
In addition to Meyer and Kovacs, Sean Berrigan (19-14-33), Luke Brunner (19-11-30), Peter Grandolfo (20-9-29), Sean Murray (11-11-22), Hans Huber (10-11-21), Anthony Panetti (8-10-18), and Will Hopkins (6-7-13) have all hit double figures in points.
Berrigan (18), Kovacs (18), Meyer (15), and Brunner (14) have all registered a point in every game this season and have point streaks that date back to 2025.
Bucknell has used two senior goalies this season. Jaz Zanelli has made nine starts and has a .429 save percentage and a 10.85 GAA. Luke Renaud has started four games and has a .423 save percentage and 12.49 GAA. Zanelli scored his first career goal on a 60-yard shot against Lafayette's 10-man ride, and he also has an assist on a Jack Tully goal earlier in the year.
Seniors Will Pickering and John Young are both on Bucknell's top-10 list for career caused turnovers. Pickering ranks fourth with 66, while Young is now sixth with 57. Young has a team-high 16 this season. CTs became an official NCAA statistic in 2009.
Bucknell has committed only 12 penalties in the last seven games, and five of those came in the Lafayette game. The Bison were not penalized at all in the Navy game and just once against Colgate, Army, and Boston University.
The St. Bonaventure win on Feb. 6 was the 400th in program history. The team's inaugural season came in 1968.
Frank Fedorjaka is in his 21st season as head coach at Bucknell, and he is joined on the staff by defensive coordinator Kyle Gallagher, offensive coordinator Matt Kerwick, and new assistant coach Jackson Mumford.

UMBC at a Glance

The Retrievers come in red hot with consecutive wins over Bryant (12-11), UMass Lowell (18-4), Binghamton (14-8), and NJIT (16-11) after a 1-6 start.
UMBC averages 10.36 goals per game while allowing a league-low 10.00.
Junior attackman Ryan Demato (29-9-38) leads the American East in goals per game with 2.64. Demato scored five goals against NJIT last time out and is riding a streak of nine straight multi-goal games.
Connor Chick (17-13-30) and Jake Kucinski (15-11-26) are also top scorers for the Retrievers. That veteran attack trio has accounted for 53.5 percent of the team's goals on the season.
UMBC has an outstanding faceoff man in senior Alex Steers, who has won 58.4 percent (122-209) on the season.
Conor McMahon has played all but 2:45 in goal this season. He has a .495 save percentage and 10.04 GAA, with a high of 14 saves against Bryant.
Lehigh alum Craig Chick is serving as UMBC's interim head coach this season. Senior Connor Chick is his younger brother.

The Bucknell-UMBC Series

These two teams will be meeting for the first time since 2000. They squared off in five straight seasons from 1996-2000, with two Bison wins bookending a run of three straight UMBC victories.
The most recent clash was a dramatic 8-7 Bucknell win in Lewisburg on Apr. 5, 2000, courtesy of a Michael Cheng goal with just 4.5 seconds remaining in regulation. Bucknell was ranked No. 21 and UMBC No. 16 at the time. Alex Gibson recorded two goals and three assists in the win, which was the 200th for head coach Sid Jamieson.
Bucknell won the first meeting between the two sides 11-8 on the way to an undefeated season in 1996. UMBC won 16-7 in 1997, 17-9 in 1998, and 11-7 in 1999.

Next Up

If the Bison get the help they need from the other Patriot League games on Friday night, they will open postseason play on Tuesday night. If Bucknell is the No. 4 seed, that game would be at home against Colgate at 7:30 p.m.