Hempstead, NY –The Hofstra Men's Lacrosse team returns to the Colonial Athletic Association Championship Tournament after a one year absence this Thursday, May 5 when the Pride (9-5, 3-2) take on the second seed Stags of Fairfield University (8-7, 4-1) in the second CAA Championship semifinal at Johnny Unitas Stadium on the campus of Towson University. Game time is 7 p.m.

The number one seed Tigers of Towson (12-2, 4-1), who shared the regular season title with Fairfield, will face the fourth seed Dragons of Drexel (6-8, 2-3) in the first semifinal contest at 4 p.m. at Unitas Stadium Thursday. The two winners will meet on Saturday, May 7 for the CAA Championship at Unitas Stadium at 1 p.m.

Both semifinal games will be aired exclusively on CAA.tv with Kyle Coulter and Glenn Smith describing the action. WRHU-FM 88.7, Radio Hofstra University, will broadcast Thursday's semifinal contest against Fairfield with Anthony Santaniello and Nick Valastro calling the action.  The CAA will also provide live stats via StatBroadcast Championship Central. All recaps, boxes, stats, video and brackets, etc. can be found at CAA Championship Central at CAAsports.com.

Saturday's CAA Championship game will air live on ASN at 1:00pm and be streamed on CAA.tv as well. Clearances for the broadcast can be found on CAAsports.com.

Fans can purchase tickets for the CAA Championship Tournament at Towson through www.TowsonTigers.com or by calling 1-855-TU-TIGER. 

Hofstra is coming off an 8-7 loss to Towson at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead last Saturday that put them in the third seed in the CAA Tournament. Senior Brian von Bargen tallied two goals and one assist, junior Josh Byrne scored twice and senior Korey Hendrickson added a goal and an assist to pace the Pride attack. Sophomore goalie Jack Concannon recorded double-digit saves for the ninth time this season with 13 stops, including nine in the 2-2 first half.

Hofstra, which has won five of their last seven outings, has victories over North Carolina (10-5), Princeton (11-10 in OT), NJIT (19-4), Ohio State (8-5), Vermont (13-12 in OT), St. John's (15-8), Delaware (13-7), Drexel (10-4) and UMass (10-9 in OT). The Pride losses have come against Georgetown (11-6), Stony Brook (13-5), Providence (12-7), Fairfield (9-8) and Towson (8-7). Hofstra averages 10.14 goals per game and allows 8.36 per outing.

Hofstra has a balanced scoring attack that has seen four players score 25 goals or more and four tally 30 points or more on the season. The Pride is led in scoring by Josh Byrne, who has tallied team-highs of 30 goals, 14 assists and 44 points. Senior Sam Llinares has 20 goals for the third time in his career and now has 27 goals and eight assists. Senior Korey Hendrickson, who has a 14-game point streak and a 13-game goal streak, now has 27 goals and eight assists on the year. Senior Brian Von Bargen continues his great final season and now has career-highs of 26 goals and seven assists.

Sophomore goalie Jack Concannon, who has played all but 15 minutes this season, now has an 8.38 goals against average with 161 saves and a .581 save percentage. He leads the CAA in save percentage and ranks second in the CAA in goals against average.

Thursday's CAA semifinal between the Pride and the Stags will be the eighth meeting between the two programs in a series that began in 2002. Hofstra holds a 4-3 series lead but Fairfield has won the last two encounters by one goal in both games. The two teams last met on April 2, 2016 in Hempstead with the Stags posting a 9-8 victory. The Pride will be looking for some semblance of revenge after Fairfield ended Hofstra's 2015 season with a 5-4 victory in the final regular season game of the season that knocked Hofstra from CAA Tournament contention. The Pride's last win over Fairfield was in 2014, 9-7 in Hempstead.

The Stags of Fairfield have defeated UMass Lowell (12-10), Georgetown (13-9), Colgate (12-7), Quinnipiac (13-7), Hofstra (9-8), Drexel (8-7), UMass (8-6) and Delaware (10-5). Their losses have come against Richmond (11-10), Bucknell (13-8), Rutgers (12-6), Stony Brook (9-6), Yale (10-5), Villanova (15-9) and Towson (18-11).

Fairfield averages 9.33 goals per game on offense and allows 9.80 per outing on defense. The Stags are led by a Long Island native and freshman Colin Burke with team-highs of 41 goals and 14 assists for 55 points in 15 games. The Lloyd Harbor native leads the CAA in goals and points and man-up goals with eight this season.

Senior Charlie Schnider has tallied 10 goals and a CAA-high 29 assists for 39 points. Classmate T.J. Neubauer has added 28 goals and three assists in 13 games while sophomore Charlie Horning has chipped in with nine goals and 14 assists.

Junior Tyler Behring, who leads the CAA with 174 saves, has started all 15 games in the Fairfield goal and has recorded a 9.63 goals against average and a .559 save percentage.