ALBANY, N.Y. – Fresh off their first win of the season, the University at Albany men's lacrosse team begins its second two-game road trip of the early year to pay a visit to their longest-running non-conference rival UMass.
 
Game Info
Tuesday, March 8 at UMass (3:00 pm)
Live Stats | UMass Sports Network | Game Notes
 
Leading the Pack

• UAlbany has played UMass more often than any other non-conference opponent in the Great Danes' Division I era
• Amos Whitcomb was named UAlbany's second-straight America East Rookie of the Week following his five-point performance against Siena
• UAlbany ranks second in the America East in assists per game and faceoff percentage
• Regan Endres ranks fourth in the America East in faceoff percentage 

Scouting UMass
The Minutemen are 1-3 on the season with a victory over America East opponent UMass Lowell as well as losses to three currently ranked opponents: #12 Army West Point, #16 Boston University, and #14 Yale.  Their last game, against the Bulldogs, saw the Minutemen take then #12 Yale to overtime, ultimately falling 13-12.  UMass was picked third in the CAA Preseason Coaches' Poll, and drew three Preseason All-CAA selections, and saw graduate attack Chris Connolly named to the 2022 Tewaaraton Award Watch List.  UAlbany is 13-8 against UMass since the 2001 season, and have gone 1-2 against the Minutemen in the last three.
 
Last Time vs. UMass
UAlbany, ranked #19 at the time, hosted then-#13 UMass at John Fallon Field during the 2021 season, overcoming limited depth on the bench to knock off the Minutemen 13-12.  Jakob Patterson paced the Great Danes with three goals and five assists for eight total points, while graduate goalkeeper Liam Donnelly recorded 16 total saves, 10 of which came in the third quarter.  UAlbany led wire-to-wire, but never held an advantage of more than three goals.  UMass tied the game at 12 with 3:27 left in the fourth quarter, before Kyle Casey found Chris Ryan with 1:59 remaining for the go-ahead score, the third goal of Ryan's career.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany hosted its home opener last week, playing for the first time in Casey Stadium since early in the shortened 2020 season, and renewing their Crosstown Rivalry against Siena for the first time since 2016.  UAlbany jumped out to a 3-0 lead and ultimately defeated the Saints by a final score of 11-7 behind two goals and three assists from freshman Amos Whitcomb.  The game featured seven coaches, UAlbany's three assistants and Siena's full staff, who graduated from UAlbany and played for Great Danes head coach Scott Marr.
 
Around the America East
Conference leader Stony Brook suffered its first loss of the season, sliding to 4-1 after taking #4 Rutgers to the wire at home, 17-16.  Behind the Seawolves, Vermont has climbed into second place after winning big over Bryant for their second victory of the season.  UAlbany is tied for third with UMBC at 1-2, ahead of Binghamton in fifth at 1-3.  UMass Lowell and NJIT remain winless in four and five games, respectively.
 
Tuesday's America East Games

• Vermont at Dartmouth, 3:00 pm
• UAlbany at UMass, 3:00 pm
• Binghamton at Hofstra, 6:00 pm

Rookie of the Week II
Amos Whitcomb became UAlbany's second America East Rookie of the Week, following his two-goal, three-assist performance in the Great Danes first victory of the season against Siena.  Whitcomb joins Jacob Moran, who was the first Great Dane this season to win a conference award of any kind, last week.
 
Familiar Foes
This week's game against UMass is 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), Hartford (24), and Binghamton (21), all conference opponents.  Since their first meeting as Division I opponents in 2001, UAlbany is 13-8 against UMass.
 
Approaching 200
Three 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 visits #1 Maryland on Saturday, March 12.