University of Richmond Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Faces High Point In Vital SoCon Game
04/10/2015 | Men's Lacrosse
After a 3-0 start in Southern Conference play, the Richmond Spiders head to High Point to tangle with the Panthers for an important league contest, beginning at noon at Vert Stadium. The game features the only two Southern Conference opponents who have averaged more than 10 goals per game, while Richmond leads the league by allowing fewer than eight goals per contest this season. High Point is third in defensive scoring average in the league.
The Panthers will be the first team that the second-year Richmond program will face for a third time. The two teams last met in the Atlantic Sun Conference title game in Macon, Georgia, which the Spiders won 8-7 to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. High Point was the second team of now seven that the Spiders defeated the second time they met. Richmond is 7-2 in such meetings, after a 2-7 mark in the first meeting against a school they have faced multiple times.
UR is 7-4 so far this season, with the seven regular-season wins and three conference wins both better than last season's final tally in each category in the team's inaugural season.
In 2015, Richmond leads the Southern Conference in most major categories, including goals per game, ground balls, goals-against average and save percentage. High Point ranks second in most of the major league categories, making this a lynchpin game in the 2015 SoCon season.
Both teams have beaten Furman and Jacksonville in conference play, with Saint Joseph's a common non-conference opponent this season. Richmond beat the Hawks 9-5 at home to start the season, while HPU lost 12-11 in Philadelphia.
For the fifth time in nine weeks of the season, Richmond has the SoCon Men's Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Week, as sophomore defenseman Brendan Hynes (Mahopac, New York) took the award on Tuesday. It was his second award of the season. A Spider has won a weekly award in six of the nine weeks of the season.
Richmond is receiving votes in a major poll for the fourth time this year. The Spiders have a pair of sophomore attackmen, J.P. Forester (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) and Mitch Goldberg (Damascus, Maryland), who put up 21 goals each to lead the team in that category. Forester was named Offensive Player of the Month for March by the SoCon, while Goldberg is Richmond's lone Offensive Player of the Week, earning the mark after scoring five goals in different games this year. Forester has 12 assists and leads the Spiders with 33 points, third most in total in the league, sixth-best in per-game average.
Sophomore goalie Benny Pugh (Powhatan, Virginia / Woodberry Forest School) leads the league in both save percentage (0.599) and goals-against average (7.75). He is sixth and ninth, respectively, in the NCAA in those categories.
High Point has won its last three games, and the Panthers sport a 5-1 mark at home this season to go with their 6-5 overall mark and 2-1 league mark. The Panthers have three players with more than 30 points so far, led by Michael Leclair and his 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points, the league's top total. Dan Lomas has 28 goals to lead the conference, while Leclair's assist total is the SoCon's best.
HPU goalie Austin Geisler has made 116 saves and allowed 96 goals in nine games, and he sports a 10.71 goals-against average.
The Spiders will travel to new league foe Bellarmine the follwing Saturday, April 18, at 1 p.m.
