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Minutemen Hit Road For ECAC Battle At Hobart; Now At 12 Noon
Complete Release & Stats in PDF Format
UMASS (4-5, 2-1) at HOBART (4-5, 1-3) Minutemen Hit Road For ECAC Battle At Hobart • UMass rallied for an 11-7 win over St. John's last Saturday at Garber Field to move to 4-5 this season, 2-1 in the ECAC. The Minutemen were down 6-3 at halftime, but scored the first five goals of the second half to rally the victory over the Red Storm. Sophomore Jim Connolly recorded a natural hat trick in the 5-0 run, scoring three straight goals in a span of 3:42. Connolly added two assists for a career-high tying five points and Brett Garber scored three goals and had an assist. • The match-up was emotional for both coaches as UMass' Greg Cannella coached against his former top assistant Jason Miller, who took over as St. John's head coach this season. • UMass won its previous game, a 6-5 overtime thriller over Penn State on March 31, at Garber Field. Garber scored the game-winner 59 seconds into overtime for the Minutemen. Goalie Doc Schneider made 15 saves in that game.
Connolly, Picks Up UMass, ECAC Honors
The Series With Hobart • Last season, UMass downed Hobart, 13-7 at Garber Field. The recap is below. • In the last game at Hobart, UMass topped the Statesmen, 14-12 in Geneva in the renewal of the series on April 16, 2005. • The previous meeting was a 15-10 Hobart win in 1985. Last year's game marked the first time since 1983, Hobart played at UMass, that game was an 11-4 Minuteman win. • The teams played from 1981 to 1983, the Minutemen victorious in all three games. Those wins were sandwiched by Hobart victories, in 1972 and 1985. • Hobart won the first meeting, 13-2 in 1972 in the USILA Semifinals.
Last Season's Game: No. 10 UMass 13, Hobart 7 UMass jumped out to a 4-0 in the first quarter on goals by Brian Jacovina, Brett Garber, Fred Federico and Jamie Yaman and never looked back maintaining a lead of at least three goals for the remainder of the game. The Minutemen led 5-2 at halftime and 8-3 at the end of three quarters. Sean Morris, Federico, Clay Stabert and Andrew Recchione each scored two goals in the game, while Rory Pedrick had a goal and two assists for three points. UMass' two Tewaaraton Trophy nominees Morris and Jack Reid played huge roles in the team win. Morris' three-point game moved his season points total to 45 with a nation-leading 4.5 points per game. Reid did not allow a goal while he defended several Hobart players while grabbing three groundballs. Reid teammed with his defensemates Sean Krygier and David Von Voigt to hold the Statesmen at bay all day. Hobart's top three scorers combined for just two goals -- one each from David O'Quinn and Daryl Veltman (on a broken play). Goalie Doc Schneider was sensational in goal again, as he made 13 saves and allowed just six.
Garber Streaking • Garber leads UMass in scoring with 22 points on a team-best 18 goals and four assists. He has four hat tricks this season, all in the last six games. He posted them against Albany (3/13), a career-high tying four goals vs. Sacred Heart (3/20), Loyola (3/24), and against St. John's (4/7). Over his last six games, Garber has 15 goals. • Garber took just two shots against Penn State, but he made the second one count as he scored the game-winner 59 seconds into overtime as he lifted UMass to the 6-5 victory. The goal kept Garber's scoring streak intact as he is the only player on the UMass roster to have points in all nine games this season after his four-point game against St. John's. Garber scored in the NCAA Final last season as has a 10-game point-scoring streak overall. • Garber scored his 50th career goals in the win over Sacred Heart, when he tied his single-game career high with four goals on March 20. • Overall, Garber has 57 career goals and 80 points, the most of any active Minutemen. • Sophomore Tim Balise was the only other Minutemen to have points in every game this season, but he was blanked against Penn State. Balise had two goals against Loyola for his third multi-goal game in four contests (from March 13-24). Prior to his scoreless game versus Penn State, Balise was hot in four games, totalling eight goals and 11 points after having four in his first three games.
Schneider Saving the Day
Close Calls • At Hofstra, UMass found themselves tied at 6-6 with less than five minutes remaining in the game, but lost by a pair, 8-6. The situation was eerily similar the following week when UMass once again found themselves tied at 6-6. Yale prevailed, 7-6. At Harvard on March 10, the Minutemen were able to eek out their first win of the season by a goal, 11-10. On March 13 at Albany, UMass trailed 7-0 near halftime but rallied back to tie the game at 9-9, only to lose in overtime, 10-9 to the second-ranked Great Danes. It marked the fourth year in a row Albany beat UMass in a one-goal game.
Defense Stands Tall • The defense has received great effort from senior captain Dan Whipple, who leads the team with 29 groundballs in addition to eight caused turnovers. Whipple had his 100th career groundball at Loyola. • A trio of juniors have been stout on the close defense with Brian Danvers, Sean Krygier and David Von Voigt. Von Voigt leads the team in caused turnovers with 13 along with 12 groundballs. Krygier has 17 GBs and four CTs while Danvers has 14 groundballs and 12 caused turnovers. Joining them with added playing time has been redshirt freshman Jordan Hendry. • UMass' man-down defense has been among the nation's best posting an 82.1 proficiency mark. That ranks fourth in the NCAA. Dartmouth tops the country with an 89.3 percentage.
Lucky Number 11 & 10 • UMass is also 3-0 this season when scoring 10 goals this season and 25-0 over the past three years when reaching double-figures. The last loss when scoring 10 goals came on May 1, 2004, a 17-10 loss at Syracuse.
Big Winners Over Last Seven Years
Gorillas at Home • Two years ago, UMass posted a perfect 8-0 record at home tying its record for best home record without a loss at 8-0, which was set in 1981. It was the first time since 1992 UMass went undefeated at home, as they went 6-0 that season. • Since the start of the 2001 season, UMass is 46-8 at Garber Field, winning 85 percent of the games at the friendly confines.
Schneider On Tewaaraton List • Last season, attackman Sean Morris was the national runner-up for the Tewaaraton Trophy as the sport's best college player. Jack Reid was also on the preseason watch list. • The Tewaaraton Award Foundation announces the Spring 2007 Men's Preseason Watch List. These players are considered early season indicators of who to watch as the 2007 lacrosse season begins. This list will be voted upon by coaches and narrowed as the season progresses, ultimately reaching a final list of five players who constitute the award's finalists.
2006 Season Of History • UMass posted a 13-5 record playing for USILA National Coach of the Year Greg Cannella. They were ranked No. 10 in both the USILA Coaches Poll and Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. UMass captured its 21st New England Championship in 2006 while finishing second in the ECAC with a 5-2 record. Sean Morris and Jack Reid were named USILA First-Team All-Americans marking the first time UMass had two first-team honorees. Reid was also UMass' first-ever first-teammer on defense.
Four Minutemen Named Preseason All-Americans
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