#2 Men’s Lacrosse Opens NCAA Championship vs. #8 NYIT

2018 NCAA DII Men's Lacrosse Championship - Quarterfinals
Date	Saturday, May 12, 2018 (1:00 p.m.)
Matchup	#2 Merrimack (15-1, 10-1 NE10) #8 NYIT (13-4, 6-0 ECC)
Location	Merrimack Stadium // North Andover, Mass.
Multimedia	Live Stats // Video
Social	@MerrimackMLAX // Instagram

 
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Making its program-record fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Men's Lacrosse Championship, the No. 2 Merrimack College men's lacrosse team will begin pursuit of its first national title when it hosts eighth-ranked NYIT in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Merrimack Stadium. Game time is 1 p.m.

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2018 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship
North Region
1. Merrimack vs. 4. NYIT
2. Seton Hill vs. 3. Le Moyne

South Region
1. Lenoir-Rhyne vs. 4. Colorado Mesa
2. Saint Leo vs. 3 Tampa

Merrimack in the NCAA Championship

• Merrimack is back in the national tournament for a program-record fourth straight season and fifth time overall in program history; the previous four occasions were in 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
• Merrimack earned its first-ever postseason No. 1 seed in school history after finishing the regular season with a 15-1 record and its third Northeast-10 Conference Championship, which it won over Saint Anselm (11-7) after dispatching Adelphi (17-11) in the league tournament's semifinals.
• The Warriors will be aiming to return to the NCAA Championship Final for the second straight year after making their first appearance in the title game last May at Gillette Stadium. They came within two goals of winning it all before falling to eventual champion Limestone, 11-9.
• Merrimack has reached the semifinal round of the national tournament in all of the previous four years it qualified; in 2009, there was only a four-team field, hence the Warriors earning a berth straight to the semifinals, but Merrimack has won at least one game in the other three years it has reached the national tournament.
• The Warriors will be playing only their second home game in the NCAA Championship in school history; their only other home game was a 15-13 win over LIU Post in the quarterfinal round of the 2016 tournament.
• Last year, Merrimack secured a pair of road wins over league rivals to reach the national championship game, including a 10-5 win at second-seeded Le Moyne and a 17-9 thrashing at top-seeded Adelphi to secure the program's first-ever trip to the national championship game.
• The Warriors' all-time record in the NCAA Tournament stands at 4-4, including 1-0 at home and 3-3 on the road, as well as 0-1 at a neutral site (Gillette Stadium – 2017).
• Merrimack's most frequent NCAA Tournament opponent is Le Moyne (1-3), followed by Adelphi (2-0), LIU Post (1-0) and Limestone (0-1).

Inside the Series:

• Merrimack is 3-5 all-time against NYIT and will play the Bears for the second time this season after opening the 2018 campaign against them.
• Merrimack won a shootout way back in February on Long Island, edging NYIT by a 16-14 margin in a back-and-forth affair. The Warriors lost an early 4-0 lead and fell behind on three different occasions. But facing a one-goal deficit late in the third quarter, Merrimack used a 6-3 scoring run to close out the game.
• Prior to this year, the last time Merrimack and NYIT met was back in the 2011 season. That also was the last time the Bears made the trek to North Andover, as the Warriors won that game by an 11-8 score in that year's season opener.
• All-time, Merrimack is 2-2 at home against NYIT compared to (1-3) on the road. This will mark the first NCAA Tournament matchup between the two schools.

Last Time Out:

• Fueled by a career-high five goals from senior Kyle Stenberg, another fantastic showing on the faceoff X by classmate Blake Boudreau and a career-high 12 saves from rookie Peter Brown, the No. 2 Merrimack College men's lacrosse team held off an upset-minded Saint Anselm squad in the 2018 Northeast-10 Conference Championship Final, as the Warriors clipped the 17th-ranked Hawks, 11-7, to win their third league tournament title in program history on Sunday at Merrimack Stadium. Click here for full recap.

Poll Watch:

• Merrimack finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the USILA Coaches' Poll. It was No. 1 during a four-week span and has been no lower than second all year.
• As is usually the case, the Warriors have faced plenty of the nation's top programs this year, as six other schools that are on Merrimack's schedule are also ranked in this week's poll.
• The Warriors have already played NYIT (ranked eighth when they played), LIU Post (12), Le Moyne (2) Pace (9), Adelphi (6/4) and Saint Anselm (17).

'Mack Facts:

• Merrimack (15-1, 10-1 NE10) leads the NE10 and ranks seventh nationally in scoring offense (14.31) and ranks second and fifth, respectively, in scoring defense (7.38). The Warriors boast the 12^th-best man-down defense in the country (78.6%) and 21^st-best man-up offense (34.2%). The Warriors have held 13-of-16 opponents to single-digit goals.
• Freshman Sean Black (79 points) leads all Warriors on the offensive front with 33 goals and 46 assists. He ranks first in the league in overall scoring and second in assists. His 2.88 assists per game figure ranks third nationally and scoring average (4.94) ranks fifth.
• Sophomore Charlie Bertrand, meanwhile, is the league leader in goals scored (53), ranking fifth nationally in goals per game (3.53).
• Senior Blake Boudreau has won 239-of-357 on the X (.669) as Merrimack's primary faceoff man, ranking 10^th nationally and second in the NE10 in faceoff win percentage. He ranks seventh nationally and first in the NE10 averaging 9.25 ground balls per game.
• Seniors James Bassett, reigning USILA Defensive Player of the Year, compliments classmate Eric Coburn and juniors Ryan Burke and Dan Cotnoir to form a formidable backline. All four have double-digit caused turnovers, with Coburn leading the way with 15.
• In net, freshman Peter Brown has started 14 of the team's 16 games and has been solid, posting a 6.63 goals against average (2^nd/NE10) and .509 save percentage in that span.
• Merrimack has won the last 27 games it has scored 10 or more goals in; its last loss when posting a double-digit scoring total was in double overtime against Le Moyne (12-11) on March 18, 2017.

Scouting NYIT:

• After winning its second straight East Coast Conference Tournament title last weekend, NYIT concluded the regular season at 13-4, going a perfect 6-0 in ECC play. The Bears – who have won four national titles in program history – qualified for their seventh NCAA Tournament in the process and first since 2016.
• The Bears rank 20^th nationally and second in the ECC in scoring (12.00), while defensively they yield 9.29 goals per game (4^th/25^th). They boast the eighth-ranked man-up unit in the country (42.1).
• NYIT is led by two 60-point scorers in ECC Offensive Player of the Year LeRoy Halftown (50g, 17a, 67pts) and Matt Murphy (32-28—60), while Matt Chanenchuk leads the team with 33 assists and has 57 points total.
• Shlomo Amar has won 55.8 percent of his faceoffs (225-of-403) and leads the Bears with 132 ground balls, while Ian Prate – ECC Defensive Player of the Year – has 30 caused turnovers.
• Brian Jockers has started 12-of-17 games for the Bears and owns an 8.27 GAA and .518 SV%.

Inside the Matchup:

#2 Merrimack (15-1, 10-1 NE10)	Category	#8 NYIT (13-4, 6-0 ECC)
5/4 vs. #4 Adelphi (W, 17-11) 5/6 vs. #17 St. Anselm (W, 11-7)	Recent Games	5/2 vs. Molloy (W, 12-6) 5/5 vs. LIU Post (W, 11-10)
14.31	Scoring Offense	12.00
7.38	Scoring Defense	9.29
34.2%	Man-Up Offense	42.1%
78.6%	Man-Down Defense	--
229-658 (.348)	Goals/Shot Attempts (Sh. Pct.)	204-696 (.293)
33.69	Ground Balls	30.12
12.33	Turnovers	13.76
6.88	Caused Turnovers	7.12
65.6%	Faceoff Pct.	55.9%
90.3%	Clearing Pct.	86.7%

 
Up Next
A win would send Merrimack to the national semifinals for the fourth straight year, where it would meet the winner of the Seton Hill-Le Moyne matchup on campus the weekend of May 19-20.