UMass men's lacrosse goes for 10th straight in regular season home finale against Towson

The Minutemen are ranked No. 2 in the nation entering huge Colonial Athletic Association confrontation

AMHERST - Perhaps the most serious threat to the thus far undefeated season for the University of Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team takes place Saturday afternoon at Garber Field.

The Minutemen (9-0, 2-0 Colonial Athletic Association), ranked No. 2 in both national polls, play their regular-season home finale against Towson (7-3, 2-0) at 1 p.m. in an emotional day with the 2012 senior class being honored prior to the game.

UMass, which received first-place votes in both polls this past week, looks up at only Virginia in the national rankings. The Minutemen are 5-0 at home, and 4-0 away with three games remaining after Towson. They will still have a confrontation versus Hofstra at Gillette Stadium April 21 sandwiched around road contests with Drexel and Delaware.

Towson has won five straight, including a pair of spectacular come from behind one-goal wins in the last week against Hofstra and UMBC.

In fact, spinning off the football nickname of the “Turnaround Tigers”, the men’s lacrosse team is being referred to as the “Cardiac Cats” at the campus eight miles north of Baltimore.

Last Saturday night at Hofstra, the Tigers made program history with a six-goal comeback in the fourth quarter before prevailing in the second overtime -10-9. And then at home on Wednesday night at Johnny Unitas Stadium, the Tigers overturned an 11-8 fourth-quarter deficit to win 12-11.

The Minutemen will have the benefit of being more rested and playing at home.

UMass used a nine-day layoff to before rolling past Harvard 16-8, and Saint Joseph’s 15-3 last week.

he Minutemen are ranked fifth nationally in scoring at 12.8 goals per game, and third on defense (6.6). Junior Will Manny is second in the country in points per game (5.3).

Towson is averaging 10.2 goals, and has given up 9.8. But the Tigers lost in the second and third games of the season to No. 4 Loyola (12-6), and No. 3 Johns Hopkins (13-6).

While the Minutemen own the top spot in the LaxPower rankings, they are No. 6 in the RPI, and only No. 30 in the strength of schedule. Towson is 30th on the power ranking, 20th in RPI, and 31st in strength of schedule.

UMass could hold an edge against Towson in faceoffs. The Tigers have won 108, but lost 125. The Minutemen are 116-83.

Manny leads the team in scoring with 29 goals, 19 assists for 48 points; Art Kell is second with 18-13-31; and Kyle Smith of Longmeadow follows at 19-7-26.