ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany hosts its 2022 home opener after two games on the road, welcoming Crosstown Rival Siena to Tom & Mary Casey Stadium on Wednesday.
 
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Game Info
Wednesday, March 2 vs. Siena (7:00 pm)
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Leading the Pack

• Coach Marr's three assistants and all four coaches for Siena all graduated from UAlbany and played under Marr at UAlbany
• UAlbany has not played Siena since the 2016 season
• UAlbany is 9-1 at home against Siena since 2000
• UAlbany ranks second in the America East in faceoff percentage (.596), just behind league-leader Vermont (.598)
• Wednesday is the Great Danes' first game in Tom & Mary Casey Stadium since February 29, 2020, a 15-14 victory over Harvard

Scouting Siena
Siena most recently notched its first victory of the season after dropping each of its first three.  The Saints defeated UMass Lowell over the weekend by a final score of 14-10.  Last season the Saints went winless in eight games, all of which were against MAAC opponents.  Siena was picked to finish seventh in the 2022 MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after falling in the 2021 quarterfinal round to eventual 2021 MAAC champion Monmouth.  Two Saints, Christian Watts (10g, 2a) and Pratt Reynolds (8g, 2a) have scored 10 or more points this season, and goalkeeper Christopher Yanchoris is saving shots at a rate of .547.  UAlbany has won the last three-straight against Siena, and is 12-2 overall against the Saints since the 2000 season, including 9-1 at home.
 
Last Time vs. Siena
In the last meeting between the Great Danes and the Saints, on April 26, 2016, UAlbany defeated Siena 17-8 behind an eight-point effort from Connor Field.  Siena held a 2-1 lead early in the game before UAlbany pieced together three separate four-goal runs to take control.  In the fourth quarter, UAlbany held a 6-1 scoring advantage.  The win clinched a perfect 7-0 home record for the Great Danes on the season.  Shots were equal, with both teams taking 38, but UAlbany won 20 of 28 faceoffs and won nine more ground balls than Siena did.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany played its second-straight game on the road to start the 2022 season, visiting defending CAA champion Drexel last weekend in a game that, for the first time in history, saw head coach Scott Marr meet his son, Kyle, for a game on opposing sidelines.  Drexel jumped out to a three-goal lead before UAlbany freshman Jacob Moran, who scored two goals in 30 seconds, kicked off a three-goal run to tie the game mid-way through the first quarter.  Drexel outscored UAlbany 5-2 in the second quarter, leading into a third quarter where UAlbany held a 4-1 scoring advantage.  The Great Danes ultimately rallied from a four-goal deficit to tie the game at nine before Drexel pulled away in the final minutes, 14-12.  Moran finished with a team-high four goals, the first four of his career.
 
Around the America East
Stony Brook remains unbeaten on the season, improving to 4-0.  UMBC is second at 1-1, followed by Binghamton at 1-2 and defending champion Vermont at 1-3.  Three teams, UAlbany, UMass Lowell, and NJIT, are winless through the early stages of the season.  UMass Lowell most recently fell to UAlbany's Wednesday opponent Siena, by a final score of 14-10, while Binghamton defeated a Lafayette team, 13-12, that beat Drexel in the game before UAlbany played the Dragons.
 
Wednesday's America East Games

• Siena at UAlbany, 7:00 pm

Great Danes on the Sidelines
In Wednesday's game against Siena, seven of the eight coaches on both sidelines come from UAlbany's program, and all eight have ties to the University.  Head Coach Scott Marr employs three UAlbany men's lacrosse alumni on his staff, Merrick Thomson, John Maloney, and Steve Kunz.  On the opposite sideline, Siena head coach Liam Gleason and his three staff members, Tim Cox, Derrick Eccles, and Mike Russell, all earned undergraduate degrees from UAlbany.  Additionally, all seven coaches played for Coach Marr during their undergraduate careers.  Gleason was also an assistant under Marr before accepting his current position at Siena.
 
Rookie of the Week
Jacob Moran claimed the Great Danes' first conference weekly awards of 2022, winning the America East Rookie of the Week honors for Week 3.  Moran scored a team-high four goals at Drexel in the second game of the season, including three in the first half, the first four goals of his career.
 
Family Affair
February 26th's game at Drexel featured two members of the Marr family on opposing sidelines.  Scott Marr has been head coach of UAlbany for the last 21 years, while his son, Kyle, is a volunteer assistant at Drexel working with the faceoff and goalkeepers.  Both Scott and Kyle played their college careers at Johns Hopkins, but Saturday will be the first time they will meet for a game, since Johns Hopkins and UAlbany did not play while Kyle attended.
 
Captains
The Great Danes selected three players to serve the team as captains in 2022: seniors Corey Yunker, Zane Sands, and Tanner Hay.  Hay and Sands are defenders and Yunker is UAlbany's top returning scorer from 2021.
 
Approaching 200
At the end of the 2021 season, his 21st at the helm, UAlbany men's lacrosse head coach had won 194 career games, leaving him six away from the 200-win milestone.  Marr has averaged more than nine wins per season in his career, and has led UAlbany to nine America East championship titles.  Marr's ranks ninth among active Division I head coaches, just behind Penn State's Jeff Tambroni's 203.
 
Picked Third
After making a return appearance in the America East title game in 2021, the UAlbany men's lacrosse team was picked to finish third in the 2022 America East Preseason Coaches' Poll.  UAlbany was picked just behind Stony Brook, and just ahead of UMBC, with just two points separating the three teams in the poll.  Defending champion Vermont was the unanimous favorite, earning 36 points and all possible first-place votes.  UMBC, defending regular-season champions, secured the last remaining first place vote and 25 overall points.  In between, Stony Brook landed 27 points and UAlbany earned 26.
 
Schedule Strength
Not one to shy away from a tough schedule, Coach Marr's 22nd year features yet another gauntlet of top-ranked opponents.  Seven of UAlbany's games feature matchups against teams ranked in the preseason top-20.  The Great Danes open the season at preseason #15 Cornell, before a second-straight road game against preseason #18 Drexel.  A trip to preseason #2 and 2021 national runner-up Maryland follows, before UAlbany hosts preseason #12 Syracuse for the first time in program history.  The game against the Orange precedes a home game against preseason #17 Vermont in a rematch of the 2021 America East title game.  Finally, UAlbany closes the season against two ranked Ivy League opponents, at preseason #7 Yale and then at home against preseason #11 Penn, the latter of which is the first-ever meeting between the programs.
 
Coaching Tree
Coach Marr's extensive coaching tree expanded once more in 2021, when Robert Morris hired Craig McDonald '08 as their head men's lacrosse coach.  McDonald was a four-year member of Marr's program, appearing in 61 games while scoring three goals and recording three assists with 148 ground balls.  He was part of the 2007 team that went 15-3 and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals.
 
PLL Year Four
The Premier Lacrosse League announced on February 8 that the University at Albany would once again serve as a host for one of the league's weekend slates.  Additionally, the league announced that UAlbany would host the 2022 opening weekend, a change from the campus' traditional window of August.
 
First Times
2022 will feature a series of firsts for the UAlbany men's lacrosse program.  Most prominently, the annual matchup against Syracuse will be played in Albany for the first time after playing the first 19 games in the series in Syracuse.  Syracuse was originally scheduled to visit UAlbany in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down collegiate sports.  The game was rescheduled to this season, with new Syracuse head coach Gary Gait honoring the agreement originally made under former head coach John Desko.  Additionally, UAlbany will play Ivy League opponent Penn for the first time in program history this season, in the regular-season finale at Casey Stadium.
 
Peer Vote
As voted by its players, the Premier Lacrosse League counted down the top-50 players in the league following the 2021 season.  Goalkeeper Blaze Riorden, 2021 MVP and league champion with the Chaos, was voted as the best player in the PLL following his spectacular 2021 season.  And in his first year in the league following the MLL merger, Lyle Thompson was picked third, giving the Great Danes two players in the top-three.
 
PLL Champions
Two former Great Danes, Blaze Riorden and Troy Reh, were crowned 2021 Premier Lacrosse League champions when the Chaos defeated the Whipsnakes.  The game was a rematch of the 2020 title game where the Whipsnakes came out on top.  Riorden led the Chaos to their redemptive title behind an MVP and Goalkeeper of the Year season, while also earning MVP honors for the championship game.
 
Humanitarian Efforts
Lyle Thompson, in his first year in the Premier Lacrosse League following the merger with Major League Lacrosse, was named winner of the 2021 Welles Crowther Humanitarian Award, recognizing his efforts in raising awareness about atrocities committed against Indigenous youth in residential schools in Canada.  Thompson's efforts were also featured in an issue of Sports Illustrated.
 
Super Sixes
Five UAlbany men's lacrosse alumni competed for the Iroquois National Senior Men's Team in October at the World Lacrosse Super Sixes Tournament.  The five Great Danes on the roster were Lyle Thompson, Ty Thompson, Jakob Patterson, Ron John, and Tehoka Nanticoke.  Also competing that weekend was UAlbany women's lacrosse assistant coach Taylor Frink with the Iroquois National Senior Women's Team.
 
2023 NCAA Quarterfinals
On October 14, 2020, the NCAA announced among its selections for over 450 championship sites for the 2023-26 seasons that the University at Albany was awarded hosting responsibilities for a quarterfinal bracket in the 2023 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament.  It will be the first time the Great Danes host a quarterfinal, having previously hosted three First Round games, in 2007, 2017, and 2018.
 
PLL Year Three
UAlbany hosted its second weekend of the PLL summer schedule in 2021.  After a successful first year, the Great Danes were awarded hosting privileges for year two, before the format was changed to account for the COVID-19 pandemic.  The league made its triumphant return to Albany in 2021, playing six games over three days in Tom & Mary Casey Stadium.
 
Next: UAlbany plays its next two games on the road, first at UMass on March 8, and then at #1 Maryland on March 12.  The Great Danes return home on March 19 to open America East play against Binghamton.