Men's Lacrosse Opens Atlantic 10 Championship Against #10 Richmond Thursday

2025 Atlantic 10 Men's Lacrosse Championship
Game 15	Semifinal No. 4 Seed Massachusetts Minutemen (9-5, 2-3 A-10) vs. No. 1 Seed Richmond Spiders (11-3, 5-0 A-10)
Date \| Time	Thursday, May 1, 2024 \| 11:00 a.m.
Location	Sweeney Field \| Philadelphia, Pa.
Live Statistics	Atlantic 10 Championship Central
Watch	ESPN+
Series History	Richmond leads 4-0 Last: Richmond 14, Massachusetts 5 Robbins Stadium \| Richmond, Va. \| April 19, 2025
Twitter	@UMassAthletics \| @UMassMLacrosse
Instagram	UMass Men's Lacrosse
Tickets	Buy Now

AGAINST RICHMOND

- Massachusetts is 0-4 in its series against Richmond since the two teams first met as Atlantic 10 foes in 2023. The Spiders took both meetings at Robins Stadium, 13-12 in the regular season and 15-8 in the Atlantic 10 Semifinal in 2023 and UMass fell just short of a comeback against Richmond at Garber Field last season, falling 14-12. The Spiders took this year's regular season meeting in Richmond, 14-5.

LAST TIME OUT

- UMass held an 8-7 lead at the half, but a 6-1 third quarter helped carry Hobart past UMass, 16-15 on Garber Field on April 25.
- Senior Trace Hogan paced UMass with seven points on three goals and four assists with two ground balls. Junior Aiden Drunsic and senior Caelin Lewis each had a hat trick, while Drunsic also corralled four ground balls. Freshman Robbie Granara scored twice to round out the multi-point scorers for the Maroon & White.
- Freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger made 10 saves for UMass.

HOGAN HITS 50

- With three points at Richmond on April 19, senior Trace Hogan passed the 50-point milestone and he currently has 58 on the season through 14 games.
- Hogan is the first Gorilla to reach the 50-point mark in a season since Chris Connolly put up 63 points in 2019.

GRANARA ENTERING THE RECORD BOOK

- Freshman Robbie Granara currently leads UMass with 33 goals on the season. He currently sits tied for fourth all-time in program history for goals by a freshman in a single season and has the sixth-most points by a freshman in program history with 42 to date.
- Granara has currently scored in all 14 games of his collegiate career thus far and has multiple points in all 14 as well.

GORILLAS COLLECT PAIR OF WEEKLY AWARDS

- Freshman attackman Robbie Granara and freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger both earned weekly awards following the Gorillas' 11-10 upset over No. 16/15 St. Joseph's on March 29.
- Granara and Salanger were both named UMass Student-Athletes of the Week for the week of March 31.
- Granara, the A-10 Rookie of the Week, netted a hat trick against the Hawks and picked up one ground ball.
- Salanger made 13 saves and picked up his eighth win of the season to improve to 8-1 on the season in the cage for UMass the win over St. Joseph's. The Liverpool, New York, native had a 10.00 GAA and a .565 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 31. It marked the second accolade of Granara's career and the fourth for the member of the Gorillas this season.
- Granara helped lead UMass to a 11-10 win at St. Joseph's on March 29 for the team's eighth victory of the season with a hat-trick and a ground ball.

NO LEARNING CURVE NEEDED

- Freshman goalkeeper Owen Salanger is off to a stellar start in his young collegiate career. Fourteen games into the season he ranks in the top-15 nationally in save percentage eighth, .577) and goals-against average (13th, 8.98). He entered UMass' season-opening loss to Army in relief but is now 9-4 as a starter.

GORILLAS IN THE NATIONAL PICTURE

- The Gorillas' man-down defense is fifth nationally at .795, while the squad's man-up offense ranks seventh nationally (.538), first in the A-10 in both categories.
- UMass ranks 14th nationally in scoring defense, limiting its opponents to 9.29 goals per-game.
- The Gorillas are also top-25 in the nation in saves per-game (22nd, 12.57), scoring margin (23rd, 1.79), shot percentage (19th, 0.306) and turnovers per-game (17th, 15.21).

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.
- Sophomore Jimmy Elliot and senior TJ Casey both posted their first career points against Hobart on April 25 with a goal and an assist, respectively.

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 .467 save percentage and an 18.73 goals against average.
- Hoff appeared in 30 games over three previous seasons, including a career-best 14 in 2023. To date he has scored four career goals and contributed 28 ground balls and 10 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 logged 38 career ground balls and 43 caused turnovers in his time with the Warriors.

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 256-180 (.587) 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).

Scoreboard