LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine lacrosse team takes to Clayton Field at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium for the final time this season when the Knights welcome Jacksonville for their regular season finale at noon on Saturday.
 
Both teams have already qualified for next week's ASUN Championship Tournament, but the matchup could have a big impact on tournament seeding.
 
The Dolphins come in with the ASUN's best overall record at 11-3 but are currently second in the league standings with a 6-2 conference mark.  The Knights, meanwhile, are 10-4 overall with a 5-3 record in ASUN contests.   Jacksonville can secure the tourney's No. 2 seed—which comes with a first round bye—with a win over Bellarmine. However, if the Knights can pull the upset and Air Force falls in its season finale against Robert Morris, then Bellarmine would earn the No. 2 seed.
 
Saturday's game is an interesting matchup.  While Bellarmine comes in with one of the most potent attack lines in all of Division I, including national points leader Kyle Playsted, Jacksonville comes in with the league's top goalkeeper in terms of save percentage and goals-against average. Luke Millican is stopping 53.9 percent of the shots he faces and is giving up just 9.87 goals per game, the only netminder in the league averaging fewer than 10.
 
Beyond their goalkeeping, the Dolphins come in with an impressive overall resume.  Ranked in the top 20 for the majority of the season, Jacksonville opened the season with two games against teams currently ranked in the top four of the NCAA's RPI. After falling to Johns Hopkins (No. 4 RPI) in their season opener, the Dolphins responded by handing Duke (No. 1 RPI) one of its two losses on the season. 
 
In league play, Jacksonville's losses came to Utah, who has gone undefeated in the ASUN this year, and last week at home to Air Force.
 
Jacksonville features great depth on the offensive end with six different players scoring 24 or more points this season.  Dylan Watson heads that list with 34 goals and nine assists while Jacob Greiner (27G, 13A) and Jackson Intrieri (18G, 22A) have 40 points apiece.
 
Millican provides a solid last line of defense for the Dolphins, but just getting shots off against Jacksonville has proven tough for opponents.  With a strong defensive midfield and a defenseman that leads the ASUN in caused turnovers (Jack Heed), the Dolphins are outshooting their opponents 642-502 on the season. 
 
Bellarmine will try its best to test the Jacksonville defense with a starting attack line that has combined for 173 points the season, which ranks second in the nation behind Virginia.  Playsted leads the nation in scoring with 72 points (36G, 36A) while Benny O'Rourk has added 51 points (35G, 16A) and Christian Della Rocco has registered 50 points on 41 goals and nine helpers.
 
The Bellarmine defense also has been solid with two different goalies—JC Higginbotham and Dante Batista—earning ASUN Player of the Week accolades this season.  Higginbotham trails only JU's Millican in the league in terms of save percentage and goals-against average at 52.9 percent and 10.55 respectively. 
 
Jacob Berggren is BU's top long pole, statistically speaking.  He leads the team in caused turnovers with 15 and is the top non-faceoff specialist in the league in ground balls with 52 on the season.  Midfielder Denton Macdonald ranks second on the team with 13 caused turnovers, and defenseman Brady Long, who scored a goal and dished out an assist last week, has 10 CTs on the season.
 
Another interesting facet of Saturday's game will come at the faceoff dot.  Jacksonville's Nathan Kapp is third in the league, winning 203 of 365 draws for 55.6 percent.  Meanwhile, Bellarmine freshman Grant Guthrie has enjoyed surging success going a combined 30-for-43 (69.7 %) in his last two games.

With Saturday's game being the final home contest of 2023, Bellarmine will honor eight members of the lacrosse program finishing up their careers with a pregame ceremony about 11:35 a.m. The honorees include Jack Bozik, Matt Ury, Parker Freiberg, Preston Winner, Jacob Berggren, Bobby Gabriel, Jesse Roth, and manager Caitlin Soward.
 
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitt0er (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights) and Facebook (BUKnights).