Men's Lacrosse Opens Atlantic 10 Play At #16/15 Saint Joseph's Saturday

Game 10	Massachusetts Minutemen (7-2., 0-0 A-10) vs. #16/15 Saint Joseph's Hawks (7-2, 0-0 A-10)
Date \| Time	Saturday, March 29, 2025 \| 12:00 p.m.
Location	Sean Sweeney Field \| Philadelphia, Pa.
Live Statistics	Sidearm
Watch	ESPN+
Series History	Saint Joseph's Leads 4-2 Last: Saint Joseph's 11, Massachusetts 9 Garber Field \| Amherst, Mass. \| May 2, 2024
Twitter	@UMassAthletics \| @UMassMLacrosse
Instagram	UMass Men's Lacrosse

AGAINST SAINT JOSEPH'S

- Massachusetts and Saint Joseph's reunited as A-10 foes in 2023 after a brief stint as conference opponents in the CAA. The Hawks currently lead the series 4-2 after taking all four meetings as A-10 foes thus far. UMass fell to Saint Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 Semifinals last season, 11-9.

LAST TIME OUT

- No. 17 Massachusetts saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end last Saturday as a last second goal by Brown gave the Bears a 8-7 victory over UMass at Garber Field.
- Junior Aiden Drunsic led the UMass offense with a hat trick and senior Trace Hogan dished three assists. Freshman Robbie Granara netted two, while Michael Finnerty and Brady Hoff rounded out the goal scorers.
- For the Bears, Jeremy Hopsicker led the charge, posting a hat trick and Marcus Werthheim had three points on two goals and an assist.
- Freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger finished with 16 saves and five ground balls for UMass and Connor Foley turned aside 13 for Brown.

GORILLAS COLLECT PAIR OF WEEKLY AWARDS

- Junior attackman Aiden Drunsic and freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger both earned weekly awards following the Gorillas' 11-7 come-from-behind road win over Rutgers on March 15.
- Drunsic was selected as the A-10 Offensive Player of the Week, while Salanger was named the Rookie of the Week.
- Drunsic scored a career-high four goals against the Scarlet Knights, including three in the second half which saw UMass outscore Rutgers 7-1 in the squad's sixth straight win.
- Salanger made 13 saves and picked up his sixth straight win to move to 6-0 in the cage for UMass the win over Rutgers. The Liverpool, New York, native had a 7.00 GAA and a .650 save percentage for the week, while also collecting two ground balls.

GRANARA HONORED

- Freshman Robbie Granara was named the Atlantic 10 Men's Lacrosse Rookie of the Week on March 3. It marks the first accolade of Granara's career and the first for the member of the Gorillas this season.
- Granara helped lead UMass to a 10-9 come-from-behind win at UAlbany on March 1 for the team's fourth straight victory with a team-best four points with a goal and an assist.
- The Gorillas trailed 7-2 at halftime before Granara set up the last two goals of a 3-0 third quarter and the first goal of the fourth quarter that brought UMass back within a goal at 7-6. He then scored the Gorillas' second goal in a five-goal fourth quarter that propelled the squad to the win.

NO LEARNING CURVE NEEDED

- Freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger is off to a stellar start in his young collegiate career. nine games into the season he ranks in the top-10 nationally in save percentage (fifth, .621) and goals-against average (fifth, 7.54). He entered UMass' season-opening loss to Army in relief but is now 7-1 as a starter.

GORILLAS IN THE NATIONAL PICTURE

- UMass ranks fifth nationally in scoring defense, limiting its opponents to 8.00 goals per-game, which is good for first in Atlantic 10
- The Gorillas' man-down defense is fifth nationally at .852, first in Atlantic 10.
- UMass is 17^th nationally in scoring margin, third in the Atlantic 10 at 3.11.

CAREER FIRSTS

- Despite the tough loss against Army in the season opener, the Gorillas saw offensive contributions from some of their new faces.
- Freshman midfielder Tyler Clayton posted a hat trick in his collegiate debut, and fellow freshman Robbie Granara added another two goals in his first collegiate game.
- Senior transfer Trace Hogan led the way and contributed four points to the stat sheet in his debut with Massachusetts.
- The Massachusetts freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger played 45 minutes In his first collegiate game and totaled 13 saves.
- In the Feb. 14 win against Quinnipiac, sophomore Michael Finnerty picked up his first collegiate point with an assist while freshmen Will Morse and Jack Turowsky collected their first career goals in their UMass debuts. Finnerty scored the first two goals of his career at UMass Lowell on March 18.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE

- On February 18 vs. Dartmouth freshman Will Morse capped the scoring in the contest with UMass' first man-down goal since 2018.

WELCOME TO THE TROOP

- The Gorillas have added 11 first-year players to their roster for 2024: Attackmen (3) Luca Duva (Katonah, N.Y.), Robbie Granara (Reading, Mass.), Jack Whitham (Dallas, Texas), Midfielders (4) Tyler Clayton (Acton, Mass.), Xander Johnson (Dublin, Ohio), Ryan Mourad (Norwood, Mass.), Jack Turowsky (East Longmeadow, Mass.), Defensemen (3) Tyler Burton (Chanhassen, Minn.), Will Morse (Norwell, Mass.), Ryan Wieczorek (Massapequa, N.Y.) and Goalkeeper (1) Owen Salanger (Liverpool, N.Y.) whose father, Jeff Salanger '89, was a UMass teammate of Greg Cannella's in 1986 and 1987.

2025 LEADERSHIP GROUP

- Graduate student goalkeeper Tyler Bluse, senior midfielder Brady Hoff and graduate student defender Jack Wittmaack were voted as team captains for the 2025 season.
- Bluse saw action in nine games over the past three seasons, playing a total of 21:12, backing up All-American Matt Knote. He holds a career .481 save percentage and a 18.21 goals against average.
- Hoff appeared in 30 games over three previous seasons, including a career-best 14 in 2023. He has scored two career goals and contributed 21 ground balls and seven caused turnovers.
- Wittmaack has played in 33 games over three seasons after not seeing action as a freshman in 2021. The defenseman has totaled three points on two goals and three assists, 47 ground balls and 35 caused turnovers. He posted career bests in ground balls (30) and caused turnovers (22) in 2024 as a senior. Wittmaack will miss the 2025 season with an injury.

ADDING EXPERIENCE VIA THE TRANSFER PORTAL

- The Gorillas have added four transfers to the roster for 2025, including faceoff specialist graduate student Brendan Coyle from Bucknell, redshirt sophomore attackman Gavin Begonia from Ohio State and senior defenseman Joe Conley and senior midfielder Trace Hogan from Merrimack.
- Coyle saw regular action for Bucknell over X over the past three seasons for a total of 25 games, serving as the team's primary faceoff specialist in 2023 and 2024. He won 115 of 250 (.460) draws last season.
- Begonia redshirted the 2024 season with the Buckeyes last year after seeing action in three games as a rookie in 2023.
- Conley and Hogan join the Gorillas after both having starting roles with the Warriors. Hogan started all 41 games he appeared in at Merrimack and logged 79 points on 33 goals and 46 assists, including finishing third on the team in scoring in 2024 with a career-best 35 points (16g, 19a). Conley played in 41 games in three seasons in North Andover, starting 30. He has 38 career ground balls and 43 caused turnovers to his credit.

ENCORE PERFORMANCE

- Current sophomore midfielders Matthew Cargiulo and Blaise New were both named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team as freshmen in 2024.
- As a rookie, Cargiulo appeared in all 14 games in 2024 and contributed 10 points on eight goals and two assists with three multi-goal efforts, two in Atlantic 10 play, while collecting seven ground balls. New also saw action in all 14 contests to start his career and logged 22 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

NEW FACE ON STAFF

- During the offseason, head coach Greg Cannella added Cole Pecora to his staff as the director of player development for the Gorillas.
- Pecora comes to UMass from Bryant where he helped the Bulldogs to the 2023 America East title. As an assistant coach at Bryant, Pecora coached and developed the No. 4 ranked faceoff unit (59.8%) and No. 1 faceoff specialist (62.8%) in Division I in 2024, All-American Nathan Laliberte. The Bulldogs faceoff unit ranked 14^th nationally (56.6%) on his watch in 2023.
- Prior to joining Bryant's staff, Pecora was a graduate assistant coach at Wesleyan where he earned his master's in liberal studies. Pecora coached the offense, goalies, wing play and faceoffs with the Cardinals and served as co-recruiting coordinator. His recruits helped Wesleyan reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and win the 2024 NESCAC title. While with the Cardinals, Pecora mentored nine USILA Division II All-Americans over two seasons.
- As a student-athlete at Springfield, Pecora earned four varsity letters and was part of four NCAA Tournament teams. The two-way midfielder was a two-year starter and served as captain as a senior while earning all-conference recognition.

YEAR 31 FOR THE MAN IN CHARGE

- University of Massachusetts head coach Greg Cannella enters his 31^st season at the helm for the Gorillas and his 37^th year in coaching overall. He currently holds a record of 254-177 (.589) and ranks sixth among active Division I head coaches in wins. The UMass alumnus is the third-longest tenured among active Division I men's head coaches and the most tenured coach at one institution in Division I lacrosse (both genders).

NEXT UP

- The Gorillas will return to Garber Field to face off against the High Point Panthers on Saturday, April 5 at 3:00 p.m.

Scoreboard