SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The No. 4 Union College men's lacrosse team begins its quest for a Liberty League championship on Wednesday afternoon, when the second-seeded Dutchmen host third-seeded and No. 10 St. Lawrence University for the Liberty League Tournament semifinals.
 
GAME DETAILS: 4:00 p.m. – Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium
 
LIVE COVERAGE: Fans can follow the action with live stats and live video, or get live in-game updates by following Union Men's Lacrosse on Twitter. 
 
THE TEAMS: Union (14-1, 6-1 Liberty League) finished the regular season in a tie for first place with Rochester Institute of Technology (15-1, 6-1 Liberty League), but lost the tiebreaker with the Tigers to fall into the second seed. St. Lawrence University (12-3, 5-2 Liberty League) lost to RIT on Saturday to settle for the third seed, while Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (10-4, 4-3 Liberty League) beat Ithaca College on Saturday to earn the fourth seed. Wednesday's winners advance to the conference championship game, held at the highest remaining seed on Saturday, May 7.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its 13th postseason appearance in the last 14 years and is 7-11 all-time in Liberty League Tournament play, reaching the championship game on six occasions (2008, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2019) and capturing one conference tournament title in 2011. Union and St. Lawrence have met five times in the conference tournament, with the Saints holding a 3-2 edge. Three of the five games were decided by a single goal.

LAST MEETING: Union and St. Lawrence met in Canton on March 25, with the Dutchmen coming back late for a 13-10 win. Down by three goals early in the third quarter, the Dutchmen outscored the Saints 7-1 over the final 25 minutes – including 5-0 in the fourth quarter – to earn the win in both teams' conference opener. Senior Peter Burnes led the team with four goals and two assists, while sophomore Dan Donahue made 13 saves in goal.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES: Union and St. Lawrence have met in all but two seasons since 1963, with the Saints holding a 39-28 edge in the all-time series. The Dutchmen have won the last three meetings between the two schools.
 
UNION IN THE POLLS: The Dutchmen have been ranked in every national poll this season, having been ranked no lower than 12th in the USILA or Inside Lacrosse rankings. Union has been ranked as high as third in the IL media poll and fourth in the USILA coaches poll in 2022, the highest ranking for the program since the 2015 team was ranked third in the USILA poll.
  
X MARKS THE SPOT: Union boasts arguably the nation's top one-two punch at the faceoff X in senior Sam Byrne and sophomore Matthew Paolatto. Paolatto ranks 13th in Division III by winning 130 of his 183 draws (71.0 percent), while Byrne has won 117 of 194 draws (60.3 percent) to rank 64th.  In total, Union ranks 17th in the country by winning 66.0 percent of its draws so far in 2022.
 
SPREADING THE WEALTH: All three of Union's starting attackmen have earned Liberty League Offensive Player of the Week awards this season. Senior Hayden Frey has earned the honor twice, while classmates Peter Burnes and Keaton McCann both have been selected once. If McCann records two more points, it would mark the first time in program history that three Union teammates recorded 50 or more points in the same season.
 
FEELING THE BURNES: Senior Peter Burnes is having one of the best offensive seasons in recent program history. The attacker is tied for sixth all-time at Union with 44 goals and is six away from becoming just the third player ever at Union to score 50 goals in a season. His 63 points so far in 2022 also are one point away from tying him for 10th place in a single season at Union.
 
THANK GOODNESS IT'S FREY-DAY: Senior Hayden Frey continues to move his way up the Union record books. The senior enters the week seventh on the school's career scoring list with 159 points, while his 104 career goals are 10th best all-time at Union.
 
MCCANN CAN: Fellow senior Keaton McCann enters the weekend eighth all-time at Union with 106 career goals and 16th with 142 career points. His career average of 1.77 goals per game is the seventh-best mark ever at the school.
 
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Senior defender Matt Belluche was named to the USILA D3 Team of the Week on Monday after scoring his first two collegiate goals in a win over Vassar. Belluche ranks second on the team with 18 caused turnovers and is fifth on the squad with 38 ground balls so far this season. He is Union's second D3 Team of the Week honoree this year, joining senior Sam Byrne (March 15).
 
HE'D BE HONORED: Sophomore Dan Donahue was honored as the Liberty League Defensive Player of the Week in each of the team's first five weeks of competition this season, the most times ever that a Union player has been recognized in a single season. Donahue enters the postseason with a 13-1 record, a 9.12 goals against average and a .583 save percentage.

ABOUT THE OPPOSITION: Like Union, St. Lawrence has been ranked in every USILA national poll this season and has been ranked a season-high 10th in each of the last three weeks. Goalie William Helm ranks 14th in Division III with a 7.65 goals against average and fifth in the nation with a .629 save percentage, leading a defensive unit that allows 8.67 goals per contest. The offense is led by Chris Jordan, who paces the Liberty League by averaging 4.87 points per game with 34 goals and 39 assists in 15 contests. The Saints are also very good at the X, ranking 40th in the country with a 60.8 percent success rate, while SLU also boasts the country's best man-down defense, allowing only three goals on 37 attempts (91.9 percent).
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Wednesday's game advances to Saturday's Liberty League championship game against the winner of top-seeded and #2 Rochester Institute of Technology and fourth-seeded and #16/18 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.