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Jack Andrews

PREVIEW: No. 13 men's lacrosse, No. 3 Le Moyne to meet in NE10 Semifinals

5/3/2022 10:45:00 PM

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team heads to central New York on Wednesday, May 4 to take on Le Moyne College in the Northeast-10 Conference semifinals at 4 p.m.

No. 13 SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE HAWKS (10-4, 7-3 NE10)
Roster | Schedule and Results | Statistics | News

No. 3 LE MOYNE COLLEGE DOLPHINS (13-2, 9-1 NE10)
Roster | Schedule and Results | Statistics | News

Saint Anselm, the No. 3 seed in the NE10 playoffs, won a First Round tilt with sixth-seeded Southern New Hampshire on Saturday to improve to 10-4 overall on the year. The Hawks have now reached 10 victories for the second consecutive season for just the first time in program history.

No stranger to the NE10 postseason, Saint Anselm has now earned a spot in the NE10 semifinals for the third time since the 2018 season, finishing as the league's runner-up program twice (2018, 2021).

The Hawks will take on the reigning NCAA Division II national champions from Le Moyne, who compiled a 13-2 record to date after winning nine of its 10 games in the regular season. The Dolphins picked up three straight wins at the National Championship in 2021, downing Lenoir-Rhyne in the title game, 12-6.

The Dolphins earned a first-round bye after losing to No. 6 Adelphi in the regular-season finale on Tuesday, Apr. 26. Le Moyne lost by at least six goals for the first time since the 2014 season and will look to rebound against the Hawks at home.

SCOUTING SAINT ANSELM

  • Saint Anselm has won at least 10 games for the second consecutive season in 2022. Last season, the Hawks made their first NCAA Division II postseason appearance and defeated Seton Hill in overtime in the First Round, completing the year with a 13-2 overall record.
  • Saint Anselm has ranked first in the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association's coaches' poll all season, with the exception of the Apr. 11 poll which saw the Hawks fall to second. Since that poll, however, the Hawks have returned to the top of the five-team New England list.
  • The Hawks have maintained discipline with the ball, committing just 14.71 turnovers per game, on average, to rank third in all of NCAA Division II in fewest miscues per tilt. Saint Anselm has also successfully completed north of 88.1% of its clears, ranking ninth in the country.
  • Opponents have been limited to just a 73.3% success rate on clears, ranking third in the nation and leading the NE10.
  • Saint Anselm has won six games in a row, tying for the fourth-longest active winning streak in NCAA Division II.
  • The Hawks set a program record with 11 student-athletes named to NE10 All-Conference or All-Rookie teams, per the league announcement on Tuesday. Junior Ryan Slattery (North Andover, Mass.) headlined the day, earning NE10 Defensive Player of the Year honors while earning First Team honors.
  • Slattery becomes just the second Saint Anselm student-athlete to be named the NE10's Defensive Player of the Year, joining Kevin DeBenedetto '10 (2010). Slattery began the season as a three-time Preseason All-America pick and is currently tied for fifth in the NE10 with 22 caused turnovers in 14 games this season.
  • Joining Slattery on the First Team are sophomore Nick Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) and graduate student Will Palmer (Concord, Mass.). Both are first-time All-Conference selections.
  • Larsen ranks fourth on the team with 37 points (16-21=37), recording a point in all but one game this season while ranking fourth in the NE10 with 1.75 assists per game. One of two short-stick defensive midfield selections on the First Team, Palmer has started a career-high 14 games and has scored five goals and three assists for eight points (5-3=8).
  • Graduate student Sean Tomaszewski (Arlington, Mass.) is pouring home exactly three goals per game, leading all NE10 student-athletes and ranking seventh all-time in single-season Saint Anselm history with 42 markers to date. He earned Second Team All-NE10 honors on Tuesday.
  • Junior Jack Robinson (Wilbraham, Mass.) leads Saint Anselm (and ranks seventh in NCAA Division II) with 2.5 assists per game, on average. His 2.54 goals per game also ranks within the top 10 in the NE10, trailing the league leader, Tomaszewski.
  • Netminder CJ Hart (Reading, Mass.) has a 9.08 goals-against average, ranking fourth in the NE10, and his 9.79 saves per game ranks seventh in the league. He owns a .557 save percentage, the sixth-finest figure among NE10 backstops.
  • Hart's 8.12 career goals-against average is the fifth-best rate among active NCAA Division II netminders. In his Saint Anselm career, Hart has registered a .579 save percentage in 44 career games for the Hawks, logging a 26-8 overall record.
  • Hart owns a 27-8 overall record in 45 games for the Hawks, playing just shy of 2,000 career minutes in a five-season career. His 8.02 career goals-against average is the sixth-finest among active NCAA Division II backstops and he was named to the NE10 All-Championship Team in 2021, just days after securing the NE10 Goalkeeper of the Year award and First Team plaudits.
  • Head Coach Michael Sciamanna, in his seventh season at the helm, improves to 60-30 (.667) in his career. Inheriting a program that posted a 2-11 record in 2015, Saint Anselm has since made six consecutive NE10 postseason appearances (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022).

SCOUTING LE MOYNE

  • Le Moyne features one of the stingiest defenses in NCAA Division II, giving up just 7.67 goals per game to date. The team also owns the nation's sixth-best winning percentage (0.867) while ranking third behind league-leading Saint Anselm in fewest turnovers per game (15.8).
  • The Dolphins feature the NE10 Goalkeeper of the Year, Frank Delia, on the roster. He finished with a 9-1 mark against NE10 foes in the regular season, leading the NE10 in goals-against average at 5.68 and save percentage (.641).
  • Carter Collins has started and played in all 15 games for Le Moyne, scoring 32 goals with 16 assists for 48 points (32-16=48) to lead the way in point production. The transfer from Lindenwood was a USILA All-America selection who earned Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year.
  • Zach Pierce joins Collins with at least 40 points of offense on the year, scoring 24 goals with 22 assists for 46 points (24-22=46). Logging just nine goals and 10 assists in 2021, he has exploded for career-high marks in goal scoring (24), assists (21), points (45), ground balls (11) and game-winning goals (two).
  • Sam Kury leads the way with a .629 face-off winning percentage for the Dolphins, ranking 13th nationally and fourth in NCAA Division II.
  • Le Moyne is the winningest program in NCAA Division II history, owning an .831 winning percentage (354-72) entering this season. Adelphi, another strong program from the NE10, has the most overall victories (564) among those presently competing in the division.

LAST TIME OUT, LE MOYNE at SAINT ANSELM (Mar. 19, 2022)

  • Ranked ninth in NCAA Division II at the time, Saint Anselm came out on the losing end of a narrow 7-5 decision against No. 1-ranked Le Moyne on Saturday, Mar. 19 at Grappone Stadium in Manchester, N.H.
  • With the defeat, the Hawks saw a 19-game winning streak in the regular season come to an end in what proved to be a battle between two strong defensive outfits. Saint Anselm finished the game with the decisive edge in shots taken (52-to-31) and won the ground ball battle (29-to-27), but the Dolphins placed more shots on net (22-to-19) and scored three extra-man goals.
  • Both netminders stood tall in the game, with Hart making 15 saves for Saint Anselm and Delia halting 14-of-19 shots on frame.

ALL-TIME in NE10 POSTSEASON PLAY

  • Last season, the Hawks made just their second-ever appearance in the NE10 Championship game, taking on Le Moyne in that game that was won by the Dolphins, 9-4, on the Hilltop.
  • Le Moyne was playing in its 19th NE10 title game in the last 24 seasons last year. The Dolphins presently own a 37-9 (.804) record in the NE10 playoffs.
  • Saint Anselm is 7-15 (.318) in NE10 postseason play, making the conference tournament on 15 occasions since 1999. The Hawks remain in search of their first NE10 postseason championship.

ALL-TIME vs. LE MOYNE

  • The Dolphins hold a distinct edge in the all-time series between both teams. Le Moyne has won 28 of the 29 all-time fixtures, but the one loss certainly stands out for Saint Anselm.
  • In the NE10 Semifinals in 2018, the Hawks traveled to Syracuse, N.Y. and handed the No. 1 team in the country, Le Moyne, a 9-8 defeat in overtime.
  • With the win, Saint Anselm went on to play for the first NE10 Championship in program history while Le Moyne fell to 15-1 – the Dolphins were the last undefeated team in NCAA Division II that year.
  • Le Moyne won the first 24 games from Apr. 27, 1997 through Mar. 31, 2018 before the historic win for the Hawks. Since then, the Dolphins have won four in a row over Saint Anselm.
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