LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Saturday Apr. 13 at 1 p.m. the Bellarmine University lacrosse team will face Hobart College in their last Eastern College Athletic Conference game of the season. With a win the Knights will be in position to claim one of the top four ECAC spots and make the conference tournament for the first time in program history.
Bellarmine (7-3, 3-3 ECAC) is coming off of a tough double overtime loss to the No. 3/4 Denver Pioneers 11-10 and will be looking to bounce back with a big conference victory against the Statesmen.
The Hobart Statesmen are 4-6 (1-3 ECAC) on the season with their lone conference victory coming against the Michigan Wolverines 11-7. Coming into Saturday the Statesmen have dropped four in a row with losses against Robert Morris, Fairfield, Denver and Ohio State.
Hobart's offense has been led this season by the stellar play of junior attackman Alex Love (32g 6a). Love, the local product from Geneva, N.Y., was an All-ECAC Second Team selection in 2012 and set a Hobart record with 38 goals on the year. Currently, Love is second in the nation averaging more than three goals per contest.
While Hobart will look to Love to carry the load offensively, the Knights will continue to score by committee. This season Bellarmine has four players who have already accumulated 25 or more points, the first time the Knights have accomplished this level of production since 2010.
Karsen Leung leads the way with 10g and 20a,
Cameron Gardner is close behind with 23g and 3a and
Michael Ward (17g 8a) and
Lance Robinson (16g 9a) each have tallied 25 points.
The Bellarmine defense will look to keep up their impressive play against Hobart as well. Senior goalkeeper
Dillon Ward is coming off of one of the best games of his career, making 20 saves in the double OT loss at Denver. Ward has amassed over 500 saves in his time at Bellarmine and is the career saves leader for Bellarmine lacrosse.
The Knights will also look to close defenders
Michael Bender and
Sean Joyce to shut down Hobart's attack duo of Love and Cam Stone (13g 23a). Bender has played well in front of Ward all season and is second on the team in caused turnovers (15) and groundballs (28).
Prior to the start of Saturday's contest at O.B. Frazier Stadium Bellarmine will recognize 12 seniors for their contributions to the Bellarmine lacrosse program:
-
Luke Acton
-
Will Cary
-
Will Haas
-
David Herring
-
Liam Kelly
-
Karsen Leung
-
Mitch McLaren
-
Lance Robinson
-
Trevor Timmerberg
-
Dillon Ward
-
Michael Ward
-
Billy Wersel
For
live stats and
video streaming of the game visit BUKnights.com.
