LOUDONVILLE, NY – Playing arguably their best lacrosse of the season, the Siena Men's Lacrosse team will look to continue their winning ways when it steps onto the field of Manhattan's Gaelic Park to take on the top-seeded Jaspers in a MAAC Semifinal match up under the lights at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
The fourth-seeded Saints (8-6) are riding a three-game winning streak that began just 19 days to the date of the game against these same Jaspers, in which Siena led wire-to-wire for a dominant 10-6 road victory.
Since then, Siena has topped the then top team in the standings in Mount St. Mary's 13-12 and then it followed that up with a 13-11 victory in the MAAC Opening Round against No. 5 Sacred Heart last Saturday behind a five-goal performance from sophomore attack
Pratt Reynolds in the program's first-ever MAAC hosted postseason game.
Siena leads the all-time series against Manhattan 17-10, but recent history has favored them even more so as the Saints have won 15 of the previous 17 match ups including this season's victory less than three weeks ago.
Tickets for the game as well as all MAAC Lacrosse postseason games can be bought on:
http://bit.ly/3LyFMtW
General ticket admission cost $10. Student tickets, senior\ tickets (age 65+) and youth tickets (children age six and under) are only $5.
In the team's previous meeting, Reynolds and
Christian Watts each put up three goals on the board while
Jack Erb,
Zac Schuette,
Ryan McCarthy and
George Rusnak all scored as well.
Manhattan (10-4) received scores from Kyle Gucwa, Damien Blando, Drew Hiner, Scott O'Connor, Christian Lyons and Liam Peabody.
In the cage will be All-MAAC Second Team selection
Christopher Yanchoris (11.31 goals against average, .500 save percentage and 11.36 saves per game) for Siena.
Opposite him will be Manhattan's Joe Persico (7.79 goals against average, .582 save percentage and 10.86 saves per game), who was named to the All-MAAC's First Team.
Manhattan has been the stingiest team to score on this season in the MAAC, allowing a league-low 109 total goals. The Jaspers feature an All-MAAC First Teamer on defense in Christian Clifford (25 ground balls, 13 caused turnovers) and All-MAAC Second Team selection Tadhg O'Riordan (24 ground balls, 10 caused turnovers, six goals), who plays as a short-stick defensive midfielder.
On defense, Siena ranks second in the category with 159 total goals allowed. They feature three players in the top 10 in caused turnovers in All-MAAC First Team selection
Trevor Marsala (27 caused turnovers), All-MAAC Second Team selection
Brian Mack (23 caused turnovers) and
Andrew Rooney (16 caused turnovers).
Offensively is where Siena holds an advantage as the Saints lead the conference in shots on goal per game (25.57) while Manhattan ranks eighth in the category (20.43) The Saints are third in the MAAC in scoring as a team, averaging 11.50 per game. The Jaspers are ninth in the conference with 9.57 goals per contest.
Individually, the Saints are led by Reynolds (tied for third in goals in the MAAC with 32 goals), All-MAAC Second Team selection Watts (tied for sixth in goals in the MAAC with 31), and McCarthy (seventh in the MAAC in points per game with 3.14 per game, second in assists per game with 1.71).
The top scorer for the Jaspers is Gucwa (fourth in the MAAC in points with 3.50, first in assists per game with 1.79), who was also named to the All-MAAC First Team.
The winner will advance to the MAAC Championship against the winner of the #3 Marist / #2 Mount St. Mary's match up on Manhattan's Gaelic Park on Saturday, May 6 with a 11 a.m. opening face-off scheduled to be broadcast on ESPNU.
