ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's lacrosse program heads south for a showdown against #1 Maryland on Saturday.
 
Game Info
Saturday, March 12 at #1 Maryland (10:00 am)
Live Stats | B1G+ | Game Notes
 
Leading the Pack

• Three of the six games played between UAlbany and Maryland have been decided by one goal
• UAlbany ranks third in the America East in scoring defense
• Tanner Hay leads the America East in caused turnovers per game
• UAlbany and Maryland have played four games in series history where both teams were nationally ranked; Saturday will be just the third time where only one team is ranked
• Maryland is averaging 18.7 goals in home games this season

Scouting #1 Maryland
The Terrapins are the top-ranked team in the country and undefeated through five games this season with victories over four ranked opponents including then #8 Loyola, #9 Syracuse, #20 Princeton, and, most recently, #7 Notre Dame.  A showdown with current #2 Virginia, the 2021 NCAA champion who defeated Maryland in the title game, looms for the Terrapins next weekend.  Maryland went 15-1 in 2021 en route to a B1G title, but was limited in its regular season to conference opponents.  In the NCAA Tournament, the Terrapins defeated Vermont, Notre Dame, and Duke before falling 17-16 to Virginia in the national championship.  Maryland is led by Logan Wisnauskas, who has scored 29 points (18 goals, 11 assists).  Five other Terrapins have scored double-digit points this season.  Maryland ranks second in the country in scoring offense and seventh in scoring defense this season, and boast three players named to the 2022 Tewaaraton Watch List.  UAlbany is 1-5 lifetime against Maryland, but the last two games between the teams in College Park have been decided by a total of two goals.
 
Last Time vs. Maryland
Maryland was UAlbany's final opponent in 2020 before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Arriving in College Park with a 2-2 record after four games, UAlbany fell behind 6-2 in the first quarter, and trailed by as many as 8-2, before cutting their deficit to three at halftime.  Maryland pulled away to lead by a score of 13-8 after three quarters, when UAlbany used a furious fourth-quarter rally to close within one before falling just short, 14-13.  The Great Danes outscored Maryland 5-1 in the final 15 minutes, with their last score coming from Graydon Hogg with 2:18 left in the game.  The Terrapins held a significant advantage in faceoffs, winning 23 of 30, but UAlbany's defense caused Maryland problems all day, to the tune of 17 Terrapin turnovers.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany renewed its longest-running rivalry earlier this week, playing UMass for the 22nd-straight season.  The game, played in Amherst, Mass., saw the 2022 season debut of Corey Yunker, who was sidelined in the first three games of the season with an injury.  Yunker wasted no time acclimating to the game, scoring the first goal of the afternoon just over three minutes after the opening faceoff.  UAlbany took an early 2-0 lead before UMass rolled off the next five scores to take control.  After the Minutemen led 9-5 at the break, UAlbany held UMass to just three goals after halftime but could not quite pull all the way back and ultimately fell 12-9.  Tommy Heller set a career-high in saves for the second-straight game, recording 14 against the Minutemen.  Yunker finished with two goals on the day.
 
Around the America East
Following three mid-week games in the conference, Stony Brook remains atop the America East standings at 4-1 overall.  Binghamton has climbed into sole possession of second place following their victory Tuesday over Hofstra.  UMBC, idle during the week ahead of a Friday showdown against Utah, is third, followed by Vermont in fourth.  The Catamounts most recently fell to 2-4 overall after a one-goal defeat at Dartmouth.  UAlbany is fifth, ahead of winless UMass Lowell and NJIT.
 
Saturday's America East Games

• UAlbany at #1 Maryland, 10:00 am
• Stony Brook at #19 Brown, 1:00 pm
• Sacred Heart at UMass Lowell, 1:00 pm
• Monmouth at NJIT, 1:00 pm
• Vermont at Providence, 1:00 pm
• Fairfield at Binghamton, 1:00 pm

Familiar Foes
The 2022 game against UMass was the latest in the Great Danes longest-running rivalry of their Division I era.  UAlbany and UMass have played every season since 2001, the longest uninterrupted streak among UAlbany opponents.  Since reclassifying to Division I, the only opponents UAlbany has played more frequently are Stony Brook (33), UMBC (26), Vermont (25), and Hartford (24), all America East conference opponents.  Since their first meeting as Division I opponents in 2001, UAlbany is 13-9 against UMass.
 
Approaching 200
Four games into the 2022 season, his 22nd at the helm, UAlbany men's lacrosse head coach has won 195 career games, leaving him five 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.
 
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
Saturday's game at Drexel will feature 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.
 
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 begins America East competition by hosting Binghamton on Saturday, March 19.