Game Notes

The #15 Fairfield University men's lacrosse team plays its first ECAC Lacrosse League road game of the season on Saturday at Bellarmine University, with game-time set for 1 p.m.  The Stags are 8-1 on the year and 1-0 in league play, while the Knights are 3-3 overall and 0-2 in conference action.

Bellarmine will offer a video streaming option of the game, as well as livestats.

Fairfield and Bellarmine are meeting for the third time and all as ECAC foes.  The Stags are 2-0 in the series, having won the inaugural meeting, 13-4, in Louisville.  The Stags captured the first home meeting of the series in 2011, 13-11.

Fairfield defeated Hobart 17-12 in its ECAC Lacrosse League season opener last Saturday.  It marks the start of the Stags seventh season as a member of the league and the victory continues the  Stags streak of winning those games.  The Stags are perfect in the league opener, having beaten Rutgers in each of the first four seasons, then Ohio State in2 010 and Air Force in 2011.

For the sixth consecutive week the Stags are receiving votes in national polls, earning the 15th ranking in both the USILA Coaches and Nike/Inside Lacrosse polls.  Fairfield began receiving votes in the first in-season poll, receiving votes in both polls and moved to 20th in the coaches list on February 27.  The Stags reached their highest ranking, 13th, in both polls on March 12, when the squad was 6-0.  The Stags also maintained their #2 ranking in the NEILA poll for the third straight week.

A victory over Bellarmine would give Stags fourth-year head coach Andy Copelan his 50th career victory.  It would be the ninth win of the year, which would be the most for the Stags under Copelan's tutelage and the most in a season since the 2005 squad won 11 games and earned the Great West Lacrosse League berth to the NCAA Tournament.  A win over the Knights would also mark the third 2-0 start in ECAC play for the Stags, last accomplishing that in 2010 when the program opened league play with three straight victories.  The 2009 Stags also opened league play at 3-0.

John Snellman has scored a goal in 19 consecutive games, dating back to March 11, 2011, which is tied for the fifth longest streak in the nation entering the weekend.  He also has six hat tricks this season, three which came in consecutive games, to give him 12 for his career, which is 15th among active players. Snellman ended last week ranked 14th in the nation at 2.67 goals per game and 49th at 3.0 points per game.  In the ECAC he ranks fifth in goals per game and ninth in points per game.  Snellman is leading the Stags with 24 goals scored and with 27 points.  he has three man-up goals and a game-winning tally.

Fairfield begins the week ranked 4th in the nation with a team face-off win percentage of nearly 61 percent.  The Stags have won 132 face-offs in the first nine games of the season, 14.7 per game, after winning just 116, 7.25 a game, in 16 games all of last season - a win percentage of 38%.  Fairfield has seen an increase in scoring as a result, entering play on Saturday averaging 11.4 goals per game, after averaging 8.0 a game a year ago.