No. 6 Seed Men's Lacrosse Plays No. 3 Seed Penn in NCAA Quarterfinals

Saturday, May 21

Hempstead, N.Y.

12 pm

Rutgers University

University of Pennsylvania

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Photo by: Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics

No. 6 Seed Men's Lacrosse Plays No. 3 Seed Penn in NCAA Quarterfinals

May 17 | Men's Lacrosse

Rutgers Game Notes Tickets WRSU Radio Watch (ESPNU)Purchase Parking Pass Live Stats NCAA Program Rutgers Preseason Record Book Recap: First Round Win over Harvard Penn Information NCAA Tournament Bracket Brian Brecht BTN Interview

12 pm matchup Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's lacrosse is heading back to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the second straight season. The No. 6 seed Scarlet Knights will face No. 3 seed Penn on Saturday. The game will take place in Hempstead, N.Y., hosted by Hofstra University. The game will be at noon with a national TV broadcast on ESPNU.

Anish Shroff, Quint Kessenich and Paul Carcaterra will be on the call for ESPNU. Brett Hawn and Alex Carmanaty have the radio call for WRSU Student Radio (88.7 FM).

RU enters with a 14-3 record and advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history. Last weekend, Rutgers defeated No. 14 Harvard, 19-9, in front of 5,212 fans at Yurcak Field. The home crowd was 2,012 fans larger than any other site in the round and was the third largest attendance for any First Round game since the current format was implemented in 2003. The offensive explosion marked RU's most goals in an NCAA Tournament game.

Rutgers was led by eight goals by Ross Scott, who was named the national Offensive Player of the Week by USA Lacrosse Magazine. Scott's eight goals were one shy of the NCAA Tournament single-game record and a career-high. The goal total marked most goals in a game since Kieran Mullins scored eight against Michigan in 2018. It was tied for the third most goals in a single game in program history. Scott has scored 17 goals combined in his last four games.

Scott now has 48 goals on the season. On RU's single-season list, he is tied for second most goals in a season in program history, matching RU Hall of Famer Greg Rinaldi's 1990 season. With two more goals, he will tie Tom Sweeney (1978) for most goals in a single season in program history. He now has 70 points on the season, tied with Tom Sweeney (1978) and John Valestra (1964) for 7^th most in a single season.

Goalkeeper Colin Kirst excelled with 17 saves and just nine goals allowed. In three career NCAA Tournament starts, Kirst has a 8.67 goals-against average and averages 16.67 saves per game. He now has 203 saves on the season, fourth most in a single season in program history. He needs 25 to tie John Schmunk (1990) for third.

Rutgers boasts a total of seven All-Americans, per USA Lacrosse Magazine. LSM Ethan Rall (First Team) and Brennan Kamish (Second Team) led the way, and were joined by Colin Kirst, Jaryd Jean-Felix, Shane Knobloch, Ronan Jacoby and Ross Scott.

On the defensive side, Rutgers boasts the nation's best clearing percentage at 91.2 percent. RU has allowed just 11.12 goals per game, and has allowed single digits goals in five contests this season.

With a Victory
A win for the Scarlet Knights would mark:

Rutgers first Final Four appearance
The second overall Rutgers program to make the Final Four this season (women's soccer)
The first Rutgers' men's program to make a Final Four since 1994 (men's soccer)
Rutgers first time winning two consecutive NCAA Tournament games.
A defeat of No. 3 Penn would tie for the program's highest ranked win in program history (No. 3 Ohio State in 2017 and No. 3 UMass in 2003).
Sixth ranked win in one season would mark the most ranked victories in one campaign (records dating to 2003).
A third top-10 win would mark three top-10 wins in consecutive seasons.
Rutgers would have 33 ranked wins since 2003 (24 under head coach Brian Brecht, all since 2015) and be 11-6 against ranked foes in the past two years.

About Penn

Penn is 11-4 overall this season after slipping past Richmond with an overtime win in the First Round, rallying from a deficit in the final minute of regulation to persevere. The team is on a seven-game winning streak after starting 4-4 and 1-3 in Ivy League play, finishing as the conference's tournament champions.

The Quakers are led by Tewaaraton Award Finalist and First Team All-American Sam Handley. The Ivy League Player of the Year, Handley leads Penn with 70 points, scoring 36 goals and dishing out a team-high 34 assists. Additionally, Piper Bond (SSDM), BJ Farrare (LSM) and Brendan Lavelle (Defense) earned honorable mention All-American recognition.

Rutgers is 28-6 all-time against Penn in a series that dates back to 1925 but has not been contested since 1986.

Connections

Mitch Bartolo spent four years at Penn, where he was a team captain. He played in 27 games (19 starts), where he scored 20 goals and added nine assists. In his last full season (sophomore in 2019), started 13 of 16 games with 17 goals (sixth on team) to guide team to NCAA Quarterfinals

Brian Cameron's younger brother, Sean, is a freshman midfielder at Princeton, and will play in the second game Saturday at Hofstra against Yale.

Colin Kirst's younger brother, CJ, is an attackman at Cornell. The Big Red play on Sunday at the Columbus regional against Delaware, with the winner of that game set to face the Rutgers-Penn winner.

Seniors

Rutgers features 27 seniors who graduated with their Undergraduate or Masters degrees, with the team missing the University's main commencement, which was held on the same day as RU's First Round contest.

Eight of those seniors have committed to return next season: Long-Stick Midfielder Ethan Rall, Defenseman Bobby Russo, Midfielder David Sprock, Defenseman Brad Apgar, Attackman Eric Civetti, Midfielder Andrew Kim, Midfielder Justin Kim, and Defenseman Jack Stahanczyk.

Other seniors could still utilize further eligibility but have not yet made final determinations.

Return to Hofstra

This will be the second straight season that Rutgers plays in an NCAA Quarterfinal game at Hofstra. Last season, RU pushed No. 1 seed UNC to overtime before falling 12-11. Colin Kirst had 16 saves, while Ross Scott had two goals, just his second two-goal game of last season, a strong finish for him and the first hint of a breakout campaign to come this season.

Also, earlier this season, the Scarlet Knights played Hofstra in a nonconference contest at Stuart Stadium. Rutgers won that game 22-10 in a contest that it led 10-0 after 20 minutes in a dominant performance.

Rutgers NCAA Tournament History

Rutgers is making its 11^th appearance all-time in the NCAA Tournament and does so for the second straight season. The Scarlet Knights previously reached the NCAA Tournament in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003, 2004 and 2021. The NCAA playoff system for men's lacrosse was implemented in 1971. Last season, Rutgers earned a 12-5 first round victory over Lehigh for the program's first NCAA Tournament win since 1990. The team advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals, where they pushed No. 1 UNC to overtime. This season, RU returns to the NCAA Quarterfinals, marking its first time with back-to-back seasons featuring an NCAA Tournament victory.

1972: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Maryland in the Quarterfinals, 9-3 (8-Team Field)
1974: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Maryland in the Quarterfinals, 12-6 (8-Team Field)
1975: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Cornell in the Quarterfinals, 18-5 (8-Team Field)
1984: No. 7 Rutgers lost at No. 2 Syracuse in the Quarterfinals, 8-7 (OT) (8-Team Field)
1986: No. 7 Rutgers WINS, hosting C.W. Post in the First Round, 13-8 (10-Team Field)
No. 7 Rutgers lost at No. 2 Syracuse in the Quarterfinals, 17-5
1990: unseeded Rutgers WINS at No. 6 Virginia, 7-6 in the First Round (12-Team Field)
Rutgers lost at No. 3 Loyola, 19-10 in the Quarterfinals
1991: unseeded Rutgers lost at No. 7 Maryland, 13-7 in the First Round (12-Team Field)
2003: No. 7 Rutgers lost, hosting Georgetown, 9-6 in the First Round (16-Team Field)
2004: unseeded Rutgers lost at No. 6 Princeton, 12-4 in the First Round (16-Team Field)
2021: unseeded Rutgers WINS vs. No. 8 Lehigh, 12-5 in the First Round (18-Team Field)
Rutgers lost vs. No. 1 UNC in the Quarterfinals, 12-11 in the Quarterfinals (OT)
2022: No. 6 seed Rutgers WINS hosting Harvard, 19-9 in the First Round (18-Team Field)

Quotable

"I grew up 10 minutes from there and played a lot of high school games in that stadium. I know we're going to have a lot of people from my town there, it should be a great environment." - Nick Teresky (Wantagh, N.Y. native)

"Saturday, it's going to be packed, it's going to be loud. there's going to be a lot of fans. We had a great turnout last week, now we hope to bring that to Hofstra and get as much support as possible. Even still, we need to just focus on us and what Rutgers lacrosse does well in order to be successful." Ethan Rall (Islip, N.Y. native)

"Last week was the coolest atmosphere I've played in during my life. We're hoping our fans travel pretty well. We saw from this past weekened we can feed off that energy. It would be pretty cool to have that support out at Hofstra." - Bobby Russo

"There's some Thunder Road!"

Great vibes in New Jersey with #RUMLax making back-to-back trips to the NCAA Quarterfinals pic.twitter.com/ng0DEfLU2P
— Rutgers Men's LAX (@RUmlax) May 18, 2022