After a week delay, the UMBC men's lacrosse team will open its 2016 season on Saturday, February 20 when they host the Richmond Spiders at UMBC Stadium. The opening face-off is set for 12:05 p.m.
Live stats will be available via www.umbcretrievers.com and fans can also follow via the men's lacrosse program's Twitter feed (UMBC_MLacrosse). Access of live stats is also available via UMBC Front Row, UMBC Athletics' mobile website.
UMBC's scheduled opener versus Johns Hopkins last Saturday was postponed and will now be played on Wednesday, March 30. The opening face-off at UMBC Stadium is slated for 7:00 p.m. The contests at Ohio State (Fri., Feb. 26, 5 p.m.) and Mount St. Mary's (Tues., Apr. 12, 7 p.m.) have also been altered.
UMBC, which finished the 2015 season at 5-8 and 1-5 in America East, did not qualify for the America East Tournament for the first time in 12 league seasons. The Retrievers suffered a pair of one-goal losses in back-to-back weeks, as they fell, 9-8, in overtime at Hartford on April 4, then saw a five-goal second half lead slip away in an 11-10 setback to Vermont on April 11.
Five starters and 25 letterwinners return from the 2015 squad. 27 of UMBC's 41 players are freshmen or sophomores.
UMBC selected seniors Zach Esser and Nate Lewnes as their team captains for the 2015-16 academic year. Esser is the first UMBC defenseman to earn back-to-back America East First Team honors. Lewnes, an attackman, enters the 2016 campaign with 98 career points, needing two more to become the 33rd Retriever to reach the 100-point plateau.
Lewnes enters the 2016 campaign with the sixth-longest streak in the nation with goals scored in 18 consecutive games. He has amassed 47 total goals in those 18 contests.
Lewnes, who led UMBC with 31 goals in 2015, reached the 30-goal plateau for the second consecutive season, becoming just the sixth Retriever to accomplish that feat at the Division I level.
Juniors Connor Gordon and Ruston Souder and sophomore David Pisanic are battling for the starting goalkeeper position. Gordon set a UMBC freshman record for saves (167) in 2014, while Souder's 17-save effort versus Lafayette on March 27, 2015 was the most stops in a game for a Retriever netminder since Jeremy Blevins saved 20 Denver attempts in a UMBC victory in March of 2008.
Head Coach Don Zimmerman enters his 23rd season at UMBC and his 30th as a collegiate head coach. Amongst Division I head coaches, the Retriever mentor stands eighth with 233 victories and is 17th in winning percentage at .591 entering the 2015 campaign. In the all-time coaching annuals of Division I lacrosse, Zimmerman is 26th in total victories.
Five teams on the Retriever schedule were ranked in the USILA pre-season Top 20. Johns Hopkins (5th), Ohio State (11th) and Towson (16th) are ranked non-conference foes, while defending America East champion Albany (12th) and Stony Brook (20th) were also tabbed in the coaches' poll. Without playing a game, UMBC received votes in the Week 1 Cascade/Maverik media poll, while Richmond received votes in the USILA/Nike coaches' poll.
Head Coach Don Zimmerman enters his 23rd season at UMBC and his 30th as a collegiate head coach. Amongst Division I head coaches, the Retriever mentor stands eighth with 233 victories and is 17th in winning percentage at .591 entering the 2015 campaign. In the all-time coaching annuals of Division I lacrosse, Zimmerman is 26th in total victories.
Zimmerman's Records
Career Record: 233-161 (.591) (30th season)
at UMBC: 160-146 (.522) (23rd season)
Scouting the Spiders
Richmond opened the season with an 11-10 victory at Fairfield on Monday. Junior midfielder Mitch Goldberg scored five goals and added in assist as the Spiders took the lead late in the first quarter and never looked back. Junior face-off specialist Peter Moran controlled 16 of 23 draws to help the Spiders control much of the game.
UR posted a mark of 11-5 in their second season of men's lacrosse in 2015. Nine starters return from that team including Goldberg (29 goals, 39 points) and junior attackman J.P. Forester (30 goals, 50 points) on offense and junior netminder Benny Pugh. (7.42 gaa, 59% save percentage)
The Series
UMBC has won both games in the series, posting a 14-5 victory at UMBC in 2014 and earning a 9-5 decision at Richmond a season ago.
Lewnes scored three goals and added two assists in the win at UMBC Stadium, while Jack Gannon tallied twice. Gannon came back with a hat trick and an assist to key the victory in Richmond in 2015. Connor Gordon has excelled in two games versus Richmond with 24 saves and just 9 goals allowed in two games.
Up Next
UMBC heads to Columbus, Ohio to battle No. 11 Ohio State on Friday, Feb. 26 at 5:00 p.m. The game will air on ESPNU.
