LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine Knights return to action on Sunday at noon as they welcome the Richmond Spiders to Owsley B. Frazier Stadium stadium to kickoff conference play.
SoCon foes, Bellarmine and Richmond have faced each other four times. The Spiders have won all four meetings. The last game between the two in 2019 in Louisville yielded a 16-9 Spiders victory.
Bellarmine (2-6) comes into Saturday's contest after falling to Cleveland State last weekend.
Kyle Playsted (9G/8A) and Landon Trout (11G/4A) have been the Knights' leaders on the offensive end, tallying 17 and 15 points through eights contest. Benny O'Rouk has also put up 12 points (9G/3A).
The Knights' defense has been led by Jon Robbins and Eric Rubak. Robbins leads the team in caused turnovers with 19 and has scooped up 20 ground balls. Rubak leads the team in ground balls with 39 and has 16 caused turnovers. Both are top three nationally in total caused turnovers and Robbins ranks 14th nationally in caused turnovers per game (2.38).
As a team, Bellarmine ranks 14th in the nation in ground balls per game (9.72) and is first in total ground balls with 77.
In goal, JC Higginbotham has been the primary option for the Knights, starting each of the last four contests. He has recorded 74 saves with a .532 save percentage through five games of action.
Richmond (2-3) comes into this contest after beating VMI in their conference opener last Saturday. The three Spider losses have come at the hands of stiff competition: Duke, North Carolina, and Loyola (ranked No. 1, 2 and 11 in the current USILA poll).
Ryan Lanchbury leads the Spiders offense with 20 points (10G/10A) through their first five contest. Dalton Young has tallied 14 points (11G/3A) and is coming off a six-goal outing last week.
Sean Menges has been leading the Richmond defense out in front with 11 ground balls and six caused turnovers while Jack Rusbuldt has made 58 saves with a .500 save percentage anchoring the Spiders' defense in goal.
Jacob Griffin and Andrew Hamilton have been the Spiders' top two options at the faceoff dot, combing to go 62-for-115 (53%) thus far.
