PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's lacrosse hits the road again this weekend, travelling to Michigan. The game is at noon on Saturday, with a national television broadcast on ESPNU. Anish Shroff and Quint Kessenich have the TV call.

About the Scarlet Knights

Rutgers stands at No. 7 in both the Media and Coaches Poll this week and are fifth in the USA Lacrosse Magazine poll. The Scarlet Knights are 10-2 overall, with two wins over top-12 teams, and the two losses have come on the road to teams ranked No. 1 and No. 3. Rutgers is 12-6 in Big Ten regular season play over the past three seasons of conference play and 19-6 overall in the past two years.

Rutgers ranks in the top-five in the NCAA in five statistical categories: clearing percentage (1^st, 92.4%), scoring offense (3^rd, 15.67), points (3^rd, 24.17), turnovers (4^th, 13.83) and scoring margin (5^th, 5.08).

The Scarlet Knights are led in goal-scoring by a quintet of players with 22 or more goals. Rutgers is the only team entering the week in men's Division I lacrosse to boast five different players with at least 22 goals. Michigan is one of two other teams nationally (along with Duke) to have at least four. Rutgers has three attackmen (Ross Scott – 31, Mitch Bartolo – 28, Brian Cameron – 23) and two midfielders (Ronan Jacoby – 28 and Shane Knobloch – 22) to reach that mark. While those five have scored 68 percent of the team's goals so far, RU has 21 total players that have scored a goal this season and 11 players with at least six goals.

Rutgers saw the return of Brad Apgar on defense in its last game, as he made his first appearance since starting the first two games of the season, deepening a unit that held No. 1 Maryland below its scoring average on the season and has allowed the second fewest goals in the league. Rutgers has the most caused turnovers in the conference with 116, 10 more than the next highest squad. The team also has the best save percentage in the conference at 54.2%.

Long-stick midfielder Ethan Rall, named a First Team Midseason All-American, has 23 caused turnovers on the season. With two more, he will pass Kyle Pless (2019) and Nick Contino (2013, 2012) for the most caused turnovers in a single season since the program began tracking the statistic in 2006. Rall has 56 caused turnovers in his career, fifth most at RU since 2006, and three away from tying Pless and Andrew D'Agostino for 3^rd most.

About Michigan

The Wolverines enter the weekend at 7-5 overall and last in the Big Ten with an 0-3 conference record, the only winless team in league play.

UM opened the season at 7-0, which saw the program rise to No. 13 in the nation. In that initial 7-game span against Bellarmine, Detroit Mercy, Holy Cross, Canisius, Cleveland State, Marquette and Delaware, the Wolverines outscored their opponents 129-54 (an average of 18.4 to 7.7 per game), while facing a slate that featured an average opponent RPI of 49.2. Then in the five games since games (Harvard, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, Maryland and Penn State), the Wolverines are 0-5 and have been outscored 70-48 (an average of 14.0 to 9.6 per game) against foes with an average RPI of 14.2.

The Wolverines are third in the nation in points (24.17) and assists (9.42) per game, while ranking fifth in man-up offense (50%), sixth in scoring margin (4.42) and ninth in scoring offense (14.75).

Josh Zawada (team-best 37 goals and 29 assists for 66 points) is sixth in the nation at 5.58 points per game and 11^th with 2.5 assists per game. He is supported by Michael Boehm (31, 25), Ryan Cohen (22, 23) and Jake Bonomi (23, 4).

On faceoffs, Justin Wietfeldt (61.6%) in sixth in the nation while Nick Rowlett (57.0%) is 17^th, which the duo splitting the reps fairly evenly (180-150). In the cage, Shane Carr has a 10.01 goals-against-average that is ninth nationally, and 55.7% save percentage that is 11^th nationally.

With a Victory
A win for Rutgers would represent:

• Rutgers' 11^th win of the season, tying the program record for wins in a season (previously done in 1986 and 2016).
• Brian Brecht collecting his 80^th win as Rutgers' head coach
• Rutgers' seventh straight win over Michigan, its most wins over any Big Ten team since joining the conference in 2015.

About the All-Time Series

Rutgers has played Michigan eight times since 2012, winning seven. RU has won six straight dating back to 2016. In that six-game winning streak, RU has won four of those six games by a margin of seven or more.

Big Ten Tournament Seeding Scenario

The Scarlet Knights have an opportunity to clinch a top-2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament with a win this weekend, which would ensure the program of a bye in the first weekend of games (April 30) and a direct path to the semifinals at the University of Maryland on May 5.

If Rutgers, Maryland and Johns Hopkins all win their games this weekend, RU will be ensured of being the No. 2 seed. In that scenario, regardless of what happens on the final weekend of the season, Rutgers would be no worse than tied for second place with only teams that it has previously defeated.

Quotable

"We have a great mentality, trying to come out each day working hard, grinding at practice, keeping the energy levels high. Doing that at practice leads to better game days for us and better results. We've been emphasizing that this week as we move forward. We need to bring all our energy to the table against a big opponent coming up that wants to win on their Senior Day at home."

Senior Brennan Kamish

Rutgers University Athletics Success

As Rutgers University have grown within the Big Ten Conference and invested in the building of facilities, the Scarlet Knight teams across the board have started to see increased on-field success on the playing fields.

Rutgers has had nine athletic programs nationally ranked during the 2021-22 school year, with men's lacrosse being joined by men's and women's soccer, field hockey, wrestling, gymnastics, women's lacrosse, rowing, and baseball. Four of those programs (No. 7 men's lacrosse, No. 13 women's lacrosse, No. 13 rowing, No. 22 baseball) are currently ranked and in action this spring. Additionally, men's basketball has made two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the first time for that program since 1976.

 Up Next

Rutgers will return home for its final regular season game on Saturday, April 23 at 4 p.m. That contest will be against Penn State with a Big Ten Network broadcast. The game will be Senior Day, Alumni Appreciation Day, and will feature a Tom Hayes 'Celebration of Life'. Alumni can RSVP and register for the pregame event here.