The Fairfield University men's lacrosse team brings a season-long four-game winning streak to Amherst, Mass. for a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) encounter with Massachusetts. Opening faceoff on Saturday, April 4 is slated for 1 p.m.
The Stags (6-4, 1-0 CAA) are coming off a 7-4 win at Drexel in the first CAA game in program history last Saturday. The Minutemen (3-6, 1-1 CAA) dropped a 6-3 decision at nationally-ranked Towson this past weekend.
Fairfield's Last Time Out: Fairfield began its first-ever season of CAA competition with a 7-4 with at defending league champion Drexel last Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. Drew Federico, TJ Neubauer and Tristan Sperry each totaled three points for the Stags.
Coming off of a week in which he was named the NCAA.com Defensive Player of the Week and CAA Player of the Week, Tyler Behring matched his career high of 16 saves established one week ago against No. 20 Villanova. The sophomore goalkeeper also picked up three ground balls to move to 3-0 in three career starts.
Offensively, Neubauer and Charlie Schnider each scored two goals while single tallies for Fairfield came from Federico, Sperry and Colin McLinden.
Sperry also dished out two assists to move into 10th place all-time at Fairfield in both career points (114) and career assists (47).
Scouting Massachusetts: The UMass Minutemen enter the weekend with a record of 3-6 overall and 1-1 in the CAA. UMass earned a 9-7 win at Hofstra on March 21 and, most recently, dropped a 6-3 contest at nationally-ranked Towson.
Nick Mariano, the reigning CAA Rookie of the Year, leads the Minutemen offensively with team highs of 18 goals and 12 assists to account for his 30 points.
Peter Lindley and Brendan Hegarty have also netted double figures for UMass with 14 and 10 goals, respectively.
In goal, Zach Oliveri has logged the vast majority of the club's minutes. He has compiled a 10.58 goals-against average with a .517 save percentage while factoring into all nine decisions.
UMass leads the all-time series with the Stags, 7-2. The Fairfield home win last spring was the first meeting of the two clubs since the 2009 campaign.
Joining the Club: With a goal and two assists in Saturday's win at Drexel, Tristan Sperry joined the program's all-time top 10 in both career points (114) and assists (47). With 67 career goals to his credit, Sperry is also just three markers shy of entering the Stags' all-time top 10 in that category.
A Rafferty Residency: The Stags will conclude the 2015 regular season with three straight CAA contests played on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium. Fairfield begins the residency at its new home venue with a visit from Towson on Saturday, April 11. The Stags also host Delaware on Saturday, April 18 and conclude the regular season against CAA preseason favorite Hofstra on Friday, April 24. Tickets for all three contests are available for purchase at FairfieldStags.com/tix.
