UAlbany Men’s Lacrosse and Penn State Meet for First Time on Saturday
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For the first time ever, UAlbany will head to University Park to take on Penn State in a battle of ranked opponents on Saturday, March 22nd at 1 p.m.
Each team stands ranked in the polls: The Great Danes are at #18 in the USILA Coaches Poll and #19 in the Warrior DI Media Poll, while Penn State is currently at #12 and #14 in the polls respectively.
UAlbany, from the America East, lost its two-game winning streak on Saturday after a 12-11 defeat to Bryant to enter this game at 2-3 overall. Penn State will play its second game this week after defeating Dartmouth 10-6 at home, coming into the contest at 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the CAA.
The Great Danes will play their second CAA-opponent this year, defeating UMass 25-10 on March 8, while Penn State is playing its first and only America East opponent on Saturday.
UAlbany has the top scoring offense in all of Division I averaging 15.8 goals a game in its first five contests. Lyle Thompson already has an NCAA-high 24 assists and 36 points for a DI-best 7.2 a game, while brother Miles Thompson earns an NCAA-best 4.4 goals a game, tallying 22 goals and nine assists. Ty Thompson stands 20th in DI with 2.8 goals a game, totaling 14 thus far.
One of the top freshmen goalkeepers in the country last season, Blaze Riorden is currently leading all of Division I with 15.60 saves per game, earning a 57.8% save percentage. He has had at least 15 saves each of his last four games. Riorden’s has also been used for UAlbany at attack in man-up situations to help on offense, scoring his first career-goal against Bryant. Helping protect the cage in front of Riorden is Cody Futia, the team’s leader in caused turnovers with six. Breaking into the starting lineup recently is James Burdette, the tallest player on the team at 6-foot-6.
Penn State, like UAlbany, has played four ranked teams already this season, and will play a fifth one on Saturday. The Nittany Lions will play their third of four straight games at home. Head coach Jeff Tambroni, a former longtime coach at Cornell, leads Penn State in his fourth season. The Nittany Lions offense gets 11.29 goals per game, led by one of the top scorers in the nation, senior attack Shane Sturgis. Sturgis, who only scores less than Lyle and Miles Thompson in Division I, stands with 23 goals and 11 assists. Sophomore attack TJ Sanders has scored 17 goals with three assists this season.
The Penn State defense allows nine goals per game. Protecting the cage is senior Austin Kaut with a 52.4% save percentage, allowing 8.85 goals per game. Sophomore longstick James Burke leads the team with seven caused turnovers, adding 15 ground balls.
