SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the first time since 2018, the #9/8 Union College men's lacrosse team will open postseason play in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament, as the fourth-seeded Garnet Chargers host fifth-seeded Clarkson University on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium.
Union (11-4, 4-3 Liberty League) and Clarkson (8-8, 2-5 Liberty League) will meet in Tuesday's only first-round game, Union's first opening-round matchup since finishing fifth in the conference standings in 2018. The winner will travel to top-seeded and #2 Rochester Institute of Technology for Friday's semifinal round. Second-seeded and #3 St. Lawrence University hosts third-seeded and #4/5 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Friday's other semifinal.
LIVE COVERAGE: For those that can't make it to Schenectady for the game, you can follow along with live stats and live video. Fans can also get in-game updates and highlights by following @unionmlax on X and Instagram.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its 15th postseason appearance in the last 16 years and is 8-13 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 VS. THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS: The Garnet Chargers and Golden Knights will be meeting for the 46th time on Tuesday in a rivalry that dates back to 1960. Union has won nine of the last 10 matchups between the two teams and boasts a 29-16 record overall in the series. The teams have met twice in the postseason, with Union earning one-goal victories in the 2008 and 2011 conference semifinals.
LAST MEETING: Union started the Liberty League schedule with a 15-10 win over Clarkson back on March 24 in Schenectady. The home team jumped out to a 6-2 lead late in the first quarter, but the visitors scored five straight goals to take a 7-6 lead; however, Union netted the final three goals of the second and the first three of the third to build up a 12-7 lead and cruised from there. Senior Jake Mabardy recorded a game-high six points with two goals and four assists, while classmate Zach Davis added three goals and a helper. Senior Matthew Paolatto went 27-of-29 on faceoffs (with both losses coming on violations) and fellow senior Dan Donahue made 15 saves in goal.
GIVE ME LIBERTY: Union finished the regular season as the fourth-ranked team in the Liberty League and the ninth-ranked team in Division according to the latest USILA poll. Conference schools posted a combined 61-10 non-conference record this season, finishing with more wins and fewer losses than any other conference. Only two Liberty League schools (Clarkson, Ithaca) had more than one out-of-league loss in the regular season.
A TOUGH ROAD: Union's 2024 regular-season opponents had a combined winning percentage of .702 (158-67), the third-highest among Division III's 239 teams. No team in the country faced teams with fewer combined losses than the Garnet Chargers during the regular season.
UNION IN THE POLLS: Union has been ranked in every national poll this season, having been ranked as high as seventh in both the USILA and Inside Lacrosse rankings. Union has been nationally ranked by the USILA in every week during the five-year tenure of head coach Derek Witheford '11 and every week overall since April 12, 2019. Only three teams (RIT, Salisbury, and Tufts) have a longer current stretch of consecutive national rankings than Union.
THE X FACTOR: Senior Matthew Paolatto ranks third in Division III by winning 71.5 percent (264 of 369) of his faceoffs so far this season, and also ranks eighth in the country by averaging 10.73 ground balls per game. Paolatto broke the school single-season faceoff wins record in Saturday's regular-season finale at RIT, surpassing the previous record of 261 set by Connor Hall '15 in 2015, and his 161 ground balls are also six away from breaking his own school record of 166 set last season. Combined with junior Luke McHugh (14 of 28) and sophomore Luke Tranter (3 of 9), Union ranks second in the country in team faceoff percentage at 69.2 percent.
SENIOR CLASS: The 16 members of the senior class play a massive role in all aspects of the Union team this season. The offense has been heavily dominated by its seniors, with the Class of 2024 accounting for 78 percent of the team's goals (148 of 188) and points (237 of 303) so far this year. The team's top-five point-getters are all in their final season, led by Peter Kip with a team-best 57 points (37 goals, 20 assists) and Michael Shaw with 35 goals and 20 assists. In addition, seniors have also taken 91 percent of the team's faceoffs and played 96 percent of time in goal for the Garnet Chargers this year.
CENTURY MEN: Senior Peter Kip and Zach Davis became the 29th and 30th Union players to crack the 100-point plateau this season. Kip is the team's active points leader with 86 goals and 44 assists for 130 points in 62 games and is tied for 21st place in school history in career points, while Davis enters the postseason having scored 73 goals with 36 assists for 109 points in 59 games to rank 27th all-time. Meanwhile, classmate Jake Mabardy enters Tuesday one point away from reaching triple digits with 60 goals and 39 assists in 53 games.
UP IS UP AND DOWN IS DOWN: Union ranks 13th in Division III and second in the Liberty League in man-up offense, converting at a 46.5 percent success rate (20 of 43), led by six man-up goals from senior Michael Shaw. Conversely, the Garnet Chargers are last in the conference and 175th in D-III in man-down defense, successfully killing off only 64.8 percent (35 of 54) of extra-man opportunities.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Clarkson is playing in the first-round game for the second straight season after falling at home to St. Lawrence in 2023. Matt Reilly is the team's leading scorer on the year with 34 goals and 15 assists for 49 points, and is followed closely by Andrew Kearney (35 goals, nine assists) and Sebastian Geiger (34 goals, four assists). Logan Wilkinson is the team's top faceoff man at 46.9 percent (100 of 213) with a team-best 71 ground balls, while Matt Szwagulinski leads the defensive unit with 51 ground balls and 29 caused turnovers. Griffin Emerson and Eric Gellasch have both seen plenty of time in goal this year, with Emerson posting a team-best 9.94 goals against average and .546 save percentage in 12 appearances (eight starts).
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of today's game will advance to the Liberty League Tournament semifinals on Friday at top-seeded RIT.
