Hempstead, NY – A Colonial Athletic Association regular season title could be on the line when the ninth-ranked Hofstra Men's Lacrosse team (11-1, 3-1) heads to Maryland on Saturday to face the Towson Tigers (7-4, 3-1) in the regular season finale. Game time at Johnny Unitas Stadium is noon.
The Lax Sports Network will broadcast the game at Towson as part of the "
CAA Game of the Week" broadcast package. As part of the
CAA/LSN package, LSN will be the only outlet video streaming this contest and there is a charge. Pride Productions will audio stream the contest on GoHofstra.com. Links for the live statistics and the audio stream can be found on this page as well as on the Hofstra Men's Lacrosse schedule page on GoHofstra.com.
Saturday's game at Towson could have huge implications for the Pride in the final regular season standings after Drexel (6-6. 3-1) travels to UMass (5-7, 2-2) Friday evening. A Drexel win Friday night would erase the possibility of Hofstra hosting the CAA Championship Tournament on May 4-6 regardless of what happens on Saturday. But if UMass defeats Drexel, the winner of the Hofstra-Towson contest will be the number one seed and host the CAA Tournament.
Hofstra, which is ranked in the Top 10 in all three weekly Division I polls for the sixth consecutive week, is ranked ninth in both the USILA/Nike Coaches Poll and the Nike/US Lacrosse Poll and 10th in the Maverik/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll following their 15-8 CAA victory over Massachusetts at James M. Shuart Stadium last Saturday. The Pride is ranked 10th in this week's NCAA RPI.
Last Saturday against UMass, Hofstra jumped out to a big 10-3 halftime lead and never looked back on the way to a 15-8 win over the Minutemen. Senior
Josh Byrne tallied five goals and three assists while junior
Dylan Alderman added a career-high four goals and dished out an assist. Classmate
Brendan Kavanagh added three goals and freshman
Ryan Tierney contributed a goal and two assists. Junior goalie
Jack Concannon made 13 saves in the Pride net, posting double-digit saves for the eighth time this season.
This season, Hofstra has wins over Monmouth (11-9), Princeton (10-8), NJIT (20-4), Georgetown (11-9), North Carolina (11-9), Providence (11-10), Stony Brook (11-9), St. John's (9-6), Fairfield (10-6), Delaware (11-9) and UMass (15-8). The Pride average 11.83 goals per game, which is 15th in Division I, and allow 8.33 goals per game, which ranks 12th in the country. Hofstra also ranks second in the nation in fewest turnovers per game with a 10.33 average.
On the season, Byrne now has career-highs of 35 goals, 24 assists and 59 points in 12 games this season. He has tallied 104 career points (65-39-104) since his arrival at Hofstra for the 2016 season. Tierney has added 26 goals and 15 assists while junior
Dylan Alderman has career-highs of 15 goals, 16 assists and 31 points. Classmate
Brendan Kavanagh has scored career-highs of 20 goals and 24 points, sophomore
Jimmy Yanes has added 19 goals and five assists while junior
Alex Moeser has contributed career-highs of 15 goals, eight assists and 23 points. Junior goalie
Jack Concannon now has an 8.34 goals against average with 142 saves and a .592 save percentage.
Towson and the Pride will be meeting for the 48th time with the Pride holding a 26-21 series advantage. While the Tigers won the last meeting, 8-7 in Hempstead in 2016, Hofstra won the previous two encounters, topping the Tigers in Towson, 9-2 in 2015 and 9-7 in 2014 in Hempstead.
The Tigers of Towson enter Saturday's contest with a 7-4 overall record and a 3-1 slate in the CAA after their 9-8 loss at Fairfield last Saturday. Towson has wins over Mount St. Mary's (13-5), Georgetown (11-10), UMBC (8-6), Johns Hopkins (13-8), Drexel (8-7), UMass (11-8) and Delaware (10-6). Their losses have come against Loyola (11-7), Ohio State (6-3), Denver (12-11) and Fairfield (9-8). The Tigers average 9.36 goals per game on offense and allow an average of 8.00 goals per outing on defense.
Towson is led in scoring by senior Ryan Drenner with 21 goals and 17 assists for 38 points. Classmates Joe Seider has added 19 goals and eight assists and Brian Bolewicki has chipped in nine goals and seven assists. Sophomore Jon Mazza has contributed 13 goals and two assists while senior Mike Lynch has added 12 goals and three assists. Junior Josh Miller has recorded a 7.92 goals against average with 61 saves and a .500 save percentage in eight games this season.
