SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The #17 Union College men's lacrosse team begins its quest for a Liberty League championship on Friday afternoon, when third-seeded Union travels to second-seeded and #18/19 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the Liberty League Tournament semifinals.
 
GAME DETAILS: 4:00 p.m. – ECAV Stadium (Troy, N.Y.)
 
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 (10-5, 4-3 Liberty League) finished the regular season in third place in the conference standings thanks to a win over Vassar College and Clarkson University's loss to Skidmore College on Saturday. Rensselaer (9-6, 6-1 Liberty League) won its last four conference games to surge into the second spot, behind only top-seeded and #3 Rochester Institute of Technology (16-1, 7-0 Liberty League). Fifth-seeded and #15/11 St. Lawrence University (12-5, 3-4 Liberty League) outlasted fourth-seeded Clarkson in overtime on Tuesday night to earn a semifinal date with the Tigers.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its 14th postseason appearance in the last 15 years and is 7-12 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 Rensselaer have met three times in the conference tournament, with Union earning wins on all three occasions in the 2011 championship game and the 2014 and 2019 semifinals.
 
LAST MEETING: Union and RPI met in Schenectady on April 15, with RPI emerging with a 9-5 win in a defensive struggle. Juniors Clayton Arcuri and Jake Mabardy had two goals each for Union in the loss, but the home team was outscored 7-3 over the final 45 minutes in suffering their lowest goal output of the season. Luke Murphy and Anthony Mazzella paced the Engineers with two goals and an assist apiece, while Joseph Perry made 16 saves in goal.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES: Discounting the COVID year of 2020, Union and RPI have met on the lacrosse field at least once in every season since the end of World War II. The Engineers hold a 45-39 edge in the all-time series, which dates back to 1938. Union had won the last four meetings between the teams before RPI's win in Schenectady earlier this year.
 
UNION IN THE POLLS: Union has been ranked in every national poll this season, having been ranked as high as fifth in both the USILA and Inside Lacrosse rankings. Union has been nationally ranked by the USILA in every week during the four-year tenure of head coach Derek Witheford '11 and every week overall since April 12, 2019. Only six teams (Cabrini, Gettysburg, RIT, Salisbury, Tufts and York) have a longer current stretch of consecutive national rankings than Union.
   
X MARKS THE SPOT: Junior Matthew Paolatto has been one of the nation's top faceoff men all season long, currently leading the Liberty League and ranking 13th in Division III by winning 68.8 percent (196 of 285) of his draws. He also ranks third in the Liberty League in ground balls (119). Combined with sophomore Luke McHugh (30 of 56) and first-year Luke Tranter (5 of 7), Union sits seventh in the country with a 66.4 percent success rate at the X.
 
SAVING THE DAY: While the offense has struggled at times, junior goalie Dan Donahue has continued to excel between the pipes. The netminder leads the Liberty League and ranks 12th in Division III in save percentage (.614), and also leads the conference in saves per game (13.86). The junior also ranking third in the conference and 22nd in the nation in goals against average (8.68).
 
SPECIAL TEAMS STRUGGLES: Union ranks last in the conference by converting on 29.8 percent (14 of 47) of its man-up chances this season, while the man-down defense has successfully killed only 64.4 percent (38 of 59) to rank seventh in the conference. In the regular-season loss to RPI, three of the visitors' nine goals came while a player up, as the Engineers went 3-for-5 on the man advantage while Union converted only one of its seven opportunities.

ABOUT THE ENGINEERS: Rensselaer is built very similarly to Union, featuring strong faceoff play and a stout defensive unit. Angelo Venuto is 23rd in Division III with a .653 faceoff winning percentage this season and also ranks ninth in the country by averaging a conference-best 10.4 ground balls per game. In goal, Joseph Perry ranks second in the Liberty League behind Donahue in both save percentage (.597) and saves per game (13.13) and also boasts a 9.38 goals against average, while Jack Greene heads up the defensive unit in front of him with 30 ground balls and a team-best 26 caused turnovers. Luke Murphy is the team's offensive leader with 30 goals and 26 assists for 56 points, ranking fourth in the conference in assists per game and fifth in points per contest, and is followed on the scoresheet by Cooper Manzi (28 goals, 15 assists).
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Friday's game advances to Sunday's Liberty League championship game against the winner of top-seeded RIT and fifth-seeded St. Lawrence.