Men's Lacrosse Hosts Colgate in Patriot League Tournament First Round Tuesday Night

Tuesday, April 28

Lewisburg, Pa.

7:30 p.m.

Bucknell University

Colgate (PL First Round)

Photo by: Steven Schoenfelder

Men's Lacrosse Hosts Colgate in Patriot League Tournament First Round Tuesday Night

4/26/2026 7:22:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

#5 Colgate (5-8, 4-4 PL) at #4 Bucknell (8-6, 4-4 PL)
Patriot League Tournament First Round
When: Tuesday, Apr. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison are back in the postseason for the first time since 2022, and they will play a home tourney game for the first time since 2018 when defending-champion Colgate visits on Tuesday night for a Patriot League Tournament first-round contest. A win over the Raiders would put Bucknell in the semifinals for the first time since 2016.
Three-way tiebreakers were the theme in the Patriot League this spring. Army, Loyola, and Boston University shared the regular-season title with 6-2 records, and the Black Knights won that tiebreaker to grab the top seed and the right to host the semifinals and championship game. Bucknell, Colgate, and Lehigh all tied for fourth at 4-4. The Bison defeated both the Raiders and Mountain Hawks in the regular season, which gave them the tiebreaker and the No. 4 seed.
The Patriot League Tournament re-seeds going into the semifinals, so Army will play the bottom remaining seed on Friday, while No. 2 Loyola will get the better of the two first-round winners.
Bucknell had the Patriot League bye on the final weekend of the regular season and played UMBC in a non-league game at Messiah University on Friday. Both teams went deep into their depth charts in the second half, and the Retrievers prevailed 9-8 in double overtime.
The Bison moved to the brink of a postseason berth with a 15-13 win over Holy Cross on Senior Day. There was one scenario among Friday's Patriot League games that would have left Bucknell out of the postseason, but once Colgate lost at Army, the Bison were in.
Michael Meyer (34-18-52) was kept off the scoresheet for the first time this season against UMBC, but he still ranks seventh in the Patriot League in points and eighth in goals. 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 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.
Owen Kovacs (30-8-38) had a monster day with five goals on six shots against Holy Cross, and he added two assists to give him a career-high seven points. Last Wednesday he was named to the USILA Team of the Week. Kovacs now has 20 goals in his last seven games and 30 on the season, and he has moved into the top 10 in the Patriot League in goals per game (2.14).
In addition to Meyer and Kovacs, Sean Berrigan (20-14-34), Luke Brunner (20-12-32), Peter Grandolfo (22-9-31), Sean Murray (11-11-22), Hans Huber (10-11-21), Anthony Panetti (8-11-19), and Will Hopkins (8-7-15) have all hit double figures in points.
Berrigan (19), Kovacs (19), and Brunner (15) 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 10 starts and has a .420 save percentage and an 11.02 GAA. Luke Renaud has started four games and has a .454 save percentage and 11.44 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 68, while Young is now sixth with 58. Young has a team-high 17 this season. CTs became an official NCAA statistic in 2009.
Bucknell has committed only 15 penalties in the last eight 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.

Colgate at a Glance

Colgate's 2025 Patriot League title came as the No. 5 seed. The Raiders went on the road and beat No. 4 Lehigh 14-10 in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Army 16-13 in the semis, and No. 2 Boston University 17-10 in the championship game.
Colgate has had a streaky spring thus far against a very tough schedule. After a 1-6 start that included losses to Loyola, Holy Cross, and Bucknell in Patriot League play, the Raiders won four in a row against Boston University, Navy, Lafayette, and Lehigh. Most recently, they dropped a non-league game at Syracuse, and in the regular-season finale on Friday succumbed to Army 17-6.
Prior to the Army game, all of Colgate's conference tilts were decided by three goals or fewer, including the 14-12 loss in Lewisburg on March 14.
Colgate ranks seventh in the Patriot League in scoring offense (10.69) and 10th in goals against (13.06).
Colgate has a pair of 40-point scorers in Hunter Drouin (24-19-43) and Casey Quinson (35-7-42). Freddy Fowler (17-17-34) is another top scorer, and that trio has combined for 56.7% of the team's points.
Quinson ranks fifth in the Patriot League in goals and second in shots per game (8.62). Drouin is seventh in assists.
Goalie Andrew Lehrman has been the league's busiest goalie with 13.15 saves per game. He has a .512 save percentage and 13.12 GAA. Lehrman made 11 saves in the first meeting against Bucknell this season but was pulled at halftime.

The Bucknell-Colgate Series

Bucknell has a 27-20 lead in an all-time series that dates back to 1979.
Bucknell has won six of the last eight meetings, but both of Colgate's wins in that span came in Lewisburg, including a 17-4 verdict here in 2024.
The Bison and Raiders have met six times in the Patriot League Tournament. Colgate won five of those, but Bucknell's triumph was a 10-3 rout in the 2011 championship game. These two teams also squared off in the 2008 final at West Point, with Colgate winning 13-9.
Last year's game in Hamilton was a wild ride, as the Bison held off the 15th-ranked Raiders 18-17 at Andy Kerr Stadium. On a day when the two teams combined for 35 goals, it was goalie Luke Renaud who came up with two critical saves in the final minute to preserve the victory for the Bison. Michael Meyer recorded five goals and five assists for a career-best 10-point day. Connor Davis tallied three goals and four assists, and Luke Brunner recorded a natural hat trick in the third quarter to help the Bison erase a four-goal deficit. Meyer, who was huge with three goals in the fourth quarter, tied the game at 17-17 with 5:01 to play, and then Davis won it exactly one minute later. Rory (6) and Liam (4) Connor combined for 10 of Colgate's 17 goals. Rory also had five assists to give him 11 points on the day. The stat sheet was nearly dead even with narrow margins in shots (45-45), faceoffs (19-18 Bucknell), and turnovers (11-10 Bucknell).
This year's clash in Lewisburg on March 14 was another tight one, as Owen Kovacs scored two of his career-high five goals in the fourth quarter of a 14-12 Bison win. Meyer also had a big day with two goals and a career-high six assists, with three of those helpers coming on Bucknell's four fourth-quarter tallies. The Bison dominated the first half and led 8-5 at intermission, but the Raiders scored four goals in a five-minute span early in the third quarter to take the lead. After Colgate went up 9-8 on a Quinn Spillett goal with 7:02 left in the third, a goalie change helped turn the momentum back in Bucknell's favor. Jaz Zanelli came off the bench and made six big saves while the Bison surged back in front, and he threw in an assist on the go-ahead goal to boot. Bucknell finished with a 53-35 shot advantage and won the faceoff battle 18-11. Colin McCloy had a strong game, going 17-for-26 with six ground balls, and Brunner nabbed five GBs on the wing.

Next Up

The Patriot League semifinals will be played at Army's Michie Stadium on Friday. The games are set for 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and will be televised on CBS Sports Network.