GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's lacrosse team wraps up a brutal stretch of five straight games against teams that have been ranked this season, with road games this week at Anderson University on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and at Queens University of Charlotte on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
The Pioneers (7-3, 1-3 SAC) have dropped three in a row against teams that are currently ranked in the USILA Division II Top 20, including a 22-7 setback to fourth-ranked Limestone on Saturday. Anderson was ranked for the first time in program history last week at number 19, but fell out of the poll after a 17-13 upset loss at Catawba on Saturday. Queens is ranked 17th in the Division II poll, unchanged from last week's ranking.
Tusculum has been outscored 67-33 during its three-game losing streak, and the Pioneers have failed to reach double figures in each of the last two games after scoring 14 or more in seven of its first eight contests of the season.
PROFILING THE PIONEERS
Senior Nate Raymond scored twice against Limestone, boosting his season total to 37 goals and 52 points for the season which rank him third in the SAC in goals and fourth in points. Raymond, who stretched his streak of consecutive games with a goal to 20, is seven goals and seven points shy of the program single-season records of 44 goals and 59 points set by Keegan Bell in 2019. Raymond is seventh in career points for the Pioneers with 104, and fifth in career goals with 78.
Junior Tristan Kirkham stretched his own goal streak to 10 consecutive games with a goal against Limestone. Kirkham is seventh in the SAC with 31 goals and 12th in the conference with 39 points. Kirkham's seven man-up goals are fourth-most in the SAC, and he enters the week one goal shy of reaching 50 for his Pioneer career.
Tusculum has four players with 20 or more goals, with senior Kale Lawrence at 21 goals and nine assists for 30 points and grad student Lorenz Brown at 20 goals and nine assists for 29 points. Brown has scored a point in a school-record 26 consecutive games, and is up to 58 career goals which is ninth-most in school history. Lawrence was kept off the scoreboard for the first time this season in the loss to Limestone, and remains eight points shy of becoming the eighth Pioneer to record 100 career points.
Also in double figures in goals are freshman Wesley Phillips, who has 12 goals and a team-high 21 assists for 33 points, along with senior Jordan Daniel with 13 goals and 17 assists and senior Sean Dunn with 10 goals and five assists. Phillips is fourth in the SAC in assists with 21, while Daniel is seventh in the conference in both assists and in man-up goals with six. Dunn has a point in nine of the Pioneers' 10 games and is up to 32 goals and 24 assists in 42 career games.
Senior Andy Michalski is fourth in the SAC in faceoff winning percentage at .552 and ranks second in the SAC and 12th in Division II in ground balls per game with 8.50 per contest. Michalski holds the school career records for ground balls (198) and faceoff wins (394) and single-season records in both categories with 85 ground balls and 169 faceoff wins.
On defense, sophomore Nicholas Drennan has 23 ground balls and six caused turnovers, with senior Fred Harbinson contributing 18 ground balls and three caused turnovers. Senior Tyler Nunenmacher has 14 ground balls and three caused turnovers, while senior Brent Floyd Jr. has nine ground balls. Off the bench, sophomore Nick May leads the Pioneers with seven caused turnovers.
Senior Ross Geiger has faced 131 shots on goal over the past three games, and has reached double figures in saves seven times in his nine starts. Geiger made 22 saves against Limestone, the second-most in a game in school history behind his record of 30 set at Newberry on March 12. Geiger is up to 462 career saves, just 34 shy of the school record of 496 saves by Kevin Haggerty from 2015-17. Geiger leads the SAC and is seventh in Division II in saves per game at 15.11, and he is fifth in the conference in save percentage at .529.
Tusculum has the top-ranked man-up offense in Division II at 60.5 percent (23-for-38), even after going scoreless for the first time this season against Limestone. The Pioneers are third in the SAC and ninth in Division II in scoring offense at 15.4 goals per game, and also lead the SAC in saves per game at 15.00 per contest (ninth in Division II).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Anderson (7-4, 3-2 SAC), in its second season as a program, earned a signature victory with a 14-12 win over fourth-ranked Wingate on March 19. After climbing into the USILA Top 20 at 19th, the Trojans dropped out this week after a 17-13 loss on the road to Catawba. Anderson had won six in a row after opening the season 0-2, before falling 15-9 to Lenoir-Rhyne on March 16.
The Trojans' offense is sparked by the performance of sophomore Cam Weeks at the faceoff dot. Weeks has won an astounding 84.4 percent of his faceoffs this season (206-for-244), and leads Division II with 17.89 ground balls per game. Weeks went 21-for-21 on faceoffs against Lincoln Memorial on March 5 and had 28 ground balls on 31 faceoff wins against North Greenville on Feb. 23. Of note, Weeks did not play in the Trojans' loss to Catawba on Saturday, and Anderson went just 12-for-30 on faceoffs as a team.
Senior Beau Henson leads the SAC with 44 goals and is second in the conference with 56 points. Henson has scored five or more goals in a game five times, including seven-goal games against North Greenville and Catawba. Sophomore Logan Gaddis leads the SAC with 38 assists and is third in the conference with 53 points. His 3.45 assists per game are second in Division II. Gaddis has two or more assists in 10 of the Trojans's 11 games, including eight at Mars Hill on March 11. Freshman Triston Schaffer is fourth in the conference with 36 goals, including back-to-back games with six goals against Lincoln Memorial and seven against Mars Hill. Schaffer is second in the SAC with eight man-up goals.
Junior Peyton Jefferson paces the Trojans' defense with 23 caused turnovers, which ranks second in the SAC, to go along with 21 ground balls. Sophomore Chase Robertson has 18 ground balls and eight caused turnovers, and sophomore Tyler Barlan has 18 ground balls along with five caused turnovers.
Redshirt freshman Joey Heckel has started 10 games in goal for the Trojans and has hit double figures in saves seven times, including 22 apiece in wins over North Greenville and Wingate. Heckel is second in the SAC in save percentage at 54.9 percent and has an 11.79 goals against average.
Anderson ranks second in the SAC and eighth in Division II in scoring offense at 15.55 goals per game, and is sixth in scoring defense at 12.00 goals per game. The Trojans are third in the conference and sixth nationally in man-up offense at 46.7 percent.
Tusculum beat Anderson 9-7 at Pioneer Field in the first meeting between the teams on March 24, 2021.
Queens begins the week at 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the SAC following a 13-11 loss at Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday. The Royals play at Coker on Wednesday at 7 p.m. prior to Saturday's meeting with the Pioneers. Queens has lost three of its last four games, with the only win in that span a 26-5 rout of Mars Hill on March 19.
Senior Keaton Pilon is the top scorer for the Royals, ranking 10th in the SAC with 28 goals and fourth in assists with 21, for 49 points which is seventh-most in the league. Pilon had a seven-goal game against Mars Hill and three other games this season with five goals. Senior Tyler Ewen has 26 goals and 16 assists for 42 points, while freshman Jack Royer has seven man-up goals among his 19 goals this season. Freshman Hunter Meyer has added six extra-man goals and has eight goals and four assists for 12 points.
Senior Alex Alonso is fourth in the SAC in faceoff percentage at 57.1 percent (113-for-198) and is 10th in the conference with 39 ground balls. Senior Jack O'Grady and junior Bennett Smith share the team lead with eight caused turnovers, with O'Grady adding 26 ground balls.
Junior William Powley has started seven of the Royals' eight games and has an 11.09 save percentage and a .500 save percentage. Powley had a season-high 15 saves in a 16-15 win over Lynn on Feb. 12, and is eighth in the SAC with 70 total saves this season.
Queens is fourth in the SAC in scoring at 15.38 goals per game and fourth in defense at 10.50 goals allowed per contest. The Royals are second in the conference in faceoff winning percentage at 59.9 percent and second to the Pioneers in man-up offense at 55.0 percent.
The Royals lead the all-time series with the Pioneers by a 7-1 margin, with Tusculum's lone win coming by a 12-9 score at Pioneer Field on April 1, 2017. Tusculum's last visit to Queens was a 16-8 Royals win in the 2019 SAC quarterfinals.
FOLLOW THE PIONEERS
Live stats are available for all home Tusculum University men's lacrosse matches. Links to stats and video for home and away matches are posted at tusculumpioneers.com.
