LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine lacrosse team will look to rebound from a 21-13 loss at Robert Morris on Wednesday when the Knights travel to Cleveland State to take on the Vikings in a noon game on Sunday.
 
The matchup will be pivotal in the ASUN Conference standings since the teams are deadlocked with 3-3 conference records. Bellarmine and Cleveland State are tied with Mercer for fourth place in the league standings with just three more games remaining in the regular season.  Only the top six will advance to the ASUN Conference Tournament, which is slated for May 2-7 at Robert Morris.
 
The Vikings, who are 5-5 overall, come in after outlasting the Queens Royals 13-12 on Wednesday as CSU's Gannon Matthews scored the game-winning goal with seven seconds remaining.  The fact that Matthews collected the game-winner should come as no surprise as he's the top scorer on the team and comes into Sunday's game with 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points.  Ryan Haigh is the Vikings' goals leader with 19 while Brendan Sigurdson is second in points with 16 goals and 10 assists.
 
Cleveland State's defense is led by Tanner Cox and Karson Burkey, who are the team leaders in caused turnovers with 10 and nine respectively.  In goal, Cameron Logan has started all 10 games for the Vikings, making 122 saves with a 12.49 goals-against average.
 
Bellarmine (8-4 overall) is getting big numbers from the starting attack line of Kyle Playsted, Christian Della Rocco and Benny O'Rourk.  Playsted, who is just a junior, comes in the Knights' all-time points leader with 144 after recently breaking his own program record for points in a season with 62.  Della Rocco, meanwhile, has tied the Bellarmine record for goals in a season with 34 with Playsted and O'Rourk also chasing the record with 30 goals apiece.
 
Defensively, the Knights are being paced by graduate student Jacob Berggren with 13 caused turnovers and 46 ground balls.  Midfielder Denton Macdonald also has been a force on the defensive end, racking up 11 CTs while collecting 32 ground balls. 
 
In goal, Bellarmine has two different players who have earned ASUN Defensive Player of the Week accolades.  Dante Batista is the reigning DPOTW and JC Higginbotham earned the honor on Feb. 7.  Batista has gotten the last two starts while Higginbotham has been in goal for six of Bellarmine's eight wins.   
 
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