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The Fairfield University men's lacrosse team travels to defending national champion and fifth-ranked Loyola University Maryland for an ECAC Lacrosse League contest at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore, Md. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, following the Loyola women's lacrosse game versus Georgetown.
The Stags are 6-4 overall on the year and 2-1 in the ECAC, while the Greyhounds are 8-2 on the year and 4-0 in conference play.
Fairfield and Loyola are meeting for the 16th time with the Greyhounds leading the series 13-2. The two squads met twice last season, an 8-6 Loyola win on Lessing Field in the regular season and then a 14-7 Greyhound triumph in the ECAC title game in Denver. The Stags last win in the series was a 2011 ECAC semifinal victory, 10-9, in Denver. Fairfield has beaten Loyola just once in regular season play, defeating the Greyhounds 13-12 on Senior Day on Lessing Field in 2006.
Beginning today the Stags three of its final four games on the road, after playing just three of the first eight away from home. The Stags are 2-2 in road games this year, with a 1-0 ECAC record on the road. Sam Snow and Colin McLinden lead the team with nine road points each, while Tristan Sperry has scored seven goals away from home. Jack Murphy is averaging 10.3 saves per game on the road.
Tristan Sperry had his second consecutive hat trick against Bellarmine and has now tallied 14 goals on the year, which is tied for second. He has netted at least one goal in each of the last six games and in eight of the nine games he has played in. Sperry began the year with a goal at Bryant and touched net twice at Carolina. He kicked off his current streak with two goals and an assist against UMBC and then scored once in each of the next three games, with assists versus Michigan and Quinnipiac. All told, Sperry is fourth on the team with 17 points and has also picked up 18 ground balls on the year.
Michael Roe has been heating up at the face-off X over the past three games, winning at least 10 times in each of the outings. He had a season-best outing of 13-19 versus Bellarmine and also picked up a season-best 10 ground balls in that game. Roe is now 62-130 on the year, 48 percent, and has gone 35-65 in the last three outings. The junior has moved to second on the team in ground balls with 33, picking up 17 in the last two games. Roe was named the ECAC Specialist of the Week following his 12-24, seven ground ball effort in the win at Hobart.
Fairfield has committed 32 turnovers in the last two games, with 17 versus Bellarmine, after committing 13 or fewer in three of the previous four games. The Stags are now turning the ball over 15.1 times per game, but are +4 in turnover margin on the year. The Stags had a season-low 12 turnovers in the win over Quinnipiac and a season-high 21 in the loss at Quinnipiac. Fairfield has six games in which it has committed 15 or fewer turnovers.
Fairfield has not allowed a man-up goal to its opponents in the last three games to raise its penalty kill success rate to 71%, 21st in the nation. The Stags have been man-down only five times over the last three games, after a season-high five man-downs against Michigan. Only two opponents, Hofstra and Michigan, have scored more than one man-up goal and the Stags have held four teams scoreless.
Loyola has won four straight games and is atop the ECAC standings at 4-0. The Greyhounds have allowed just one team to score 10 goals and have given up just seven goals over their past two games. Jack Runkel boasts a 7.87 GAA and a .527 save percentage in his 534 minutes of action as the starting goalkeeper. Scott Ratliff has a team-best 19 caused turnovers and leads the team with 50 ground balls. The Greyhounds are +77 in the ground ball category. Five players have scored 11 or more times this season led by the 21 goals of Justin Ward. Ward leads the team in assists, 22, and total points, 43, entering Saturday's game.
Fairfield returns home for the final time on April 13 when they host Air Force at 2 p.m. for Senior Day. Fairfield closes out the regular season on the road, playing March 20 at Denver and March 27 at Ohio State.
