(Savannah, GA) - The Concordia Men's Lacrosse team will be competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) inaugural National Championship as they are making an appearance in the Quarterfinal round. Last summer the NAIA elevated Men's Lacrosse to Championship status.
This will be the Cardinals third straight appearance at the NAIA National Tournament.
GAME INFORMATION
#5 Concordia vs. #4 Webber International
May 7 | 12 PM | Memorial Stadium | Savannah, GA
Live Video | Live Stats | Tickets ($)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS
Webber International comes into the tournament as the #4 seed after a 13-2 overall record and a 7-1 record in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC). The Warriors won the AAC regular season before falling in the first round of the conference tournament to Cumberlands. AAC Head Coach of the Year, Chris Burdick is the Head Coach for the Warriors and is in his fifth season and has compiled a 59-23 record.
Nick Sheaffer was named the AAC Conference Player and Attacker of the year after scoring 58 goals and 20 assists on the season. Jeremiah Loo was named to the AAC Second Team with 48 goals and 17 assists throughout the year. Dillon Zemba was third on the team with 26 goals, and Philip Scopano led Webber International with 23 assists.
Senior defender Greyson Davidson was named the AAC Defensive Player of the Year while causing 49 turnovers and picking up 46 ground balls. Tay'Quan Bryan and Raja Brooks were also honorees on the All-Conference honors, being named to the Second Team as Bryan caused 18 turnovers and Brooks tallied 8 caused turnovers with 22 ground balls.
Liam Murphy has played the majority of minutes in net for Webber after compiling 62 saves on 124 shots for an even 50% save percentage on his way to First Team AAC honors. Luke Secreti has the second most minutes and has recorded 47 saves with a 56% save percentage. Murphy and Secreti's goals against average were 7.90 and 8.27 respectively.
Luke Pallone recorded the most faceoff wins on the year for the Warriors with 134 wins in 260 chances. Israel Miranda and Alan Basic won 41 and 20 faceoffs respectively.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
The Cardinals come into the tournament as the five seed after an 11-5 overall record on the season and a 5-2 record in WHAC play. The Cardinals are led by Head Coach Ty McGuire who is in his seventh season and has a 56-37 record at Concordia.
The Cardinals offense is paced by Travis Wright and Cooper Regimbal who recorded 74 and 73 points this season respectively with 53 and 56 goals respectively. Ross Preston leads the team with 25 assists on the year as Wright and Ryan Davis each have 21. Four different Cardinals have tallied at least 10 caused turnovers with Josh Dues (18), Mason Blow (17), Conor Przybylo (11), and Patrick Broderick (10) all hitting that mark.
Joseph Loria is the team leader in saves with 161, while allowing just over 11 goals against and has a 58.3 save percentage.
Gavin Scally is the Cardinals top faceoff man as he has tallied 258 faceoff wins against his 457 chances, which is good for 56.5%.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT (PREVIOUS MATCHUP)
The Cardinals and Warriors have faced off two previous times in program history with both occurrences coming in the regular season. Webber holds the all-times series record at 2-0.
Earlier this season these two teams met in Westfield, Indiana back on February 13. After an even 1st quarter that saw both teams tally 4 goals, Webber was able to pull ahead with a 6-3 second quarter and then outscoring the Cardinals by four goals in the second half.
Leading the scoring for the Cardinals was Travis Wright with three goals followed by Cooper Regimbal, Andrew Simmons, and Spencer Guppy each recording a pair. Wright also assisted on three goals, while Ross Preston assisted on one goal. Conor Kinsey tallied 13 saves.
For the Warriors, Jeremiah Loo and Nick Sheaffer scored 4 and 3 goals respectively, while Connor Herring, Gabriel Secreti, and Riley Small each tallying a pair. Small led the team with 3 assists. Luke Secreti made nine saves in goal.
STATS COMPARISON
|
Concordia |
Stats |
Webber |
|
16 |
Games |
15 |
|
242 |
Goals |
245 |
|
125 |
Assists |
123 |
|
15.13 |
Goals-per game |
16.33 |
|
42.5 |
Shots-per game |
45.33 |
|
680 |
Shots |
680 |
|
35.60% |
Shooting percentage |
36% |
|
455 |
Shots on goal |
434 |
|
66.90% |
Shots on goal percentage |
63.80% |
|
28 |
Man-up goals |
21 |
|
58 |
Man-up opportunities |
66 |
|
48.30% |
Man-up percentage |
31.80% |
|
1 |
Man-down goals |
1 |
|
558 |
Ground balls |
461 |
|
285 |
Turnovers |
267 |
|
130 |
Caused turnovers |
177 |
|
269-491 |
Faceoffs |
211-407 |
|
54.80% |
Faceoff percentage |
51.80% |
|
243-299 |
Clears |
285-332 |
|
81.30% |
Clear percentage |
85.80% |
|
204 |
Goals against |
118 |
|
12.69 |
Goals-against average |
7.92 |
|
239 |
Saves |
139 |
|
54% |
Save percentage |
54.10% |
NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 7 - NAIA Quarterfinals
#1 Keiser vs. #8 William Penn - 9 AM
#4 Webber International vs. #5 Concordia - 12 PM
#2 Reinhardt vs. #7 Madonna - 3 PM
#3 Cumberlands vs #6 Indiana Tech - 6 PM
Thursday, May 8 - NAIA Semifinal
Winner of #1/#8 and #4/#5 Matches - 3 PM
Winner of #3/#6 and #2/#7 Matches - 6 PM
Saturday, May 10 - NAIA Championship
Remaining two teams - 1 PM
