Men’s Lacrosse Travels to No. 10 Penn State for Big Ten Quarterfinals

Saturday, April 27

University Park, PA

3 PM

Rutgers University

Penn State

Photo by: Ariel Fox

Men’s Lacrosse Travels to No. 10 Penn State for Big Ten Quarterfinals

Apr 25 | Men's Lacrosse

Rutgers Game Notes Live Stats Tournament Central Watch on B1G+

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers men's lacrosse will start the postseason this Saturday. The Scarlet Knights are in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals, where No. 6 seed RU will travel to No. 3 seed Penn State. The road game at Panzer Stadium against the No. 10 Nittany Lions will start at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be live streamed by B1G+.

About Rutgers

Rutgers enters the postseason at 7-6 overall following a 1-4 record in league play. Of Rutgers' six losses, five came against ranked foes. Rutgers is fifth nationally in turnovers per game, leading the Big Ten at 13.62.

Ross Scott leads the team with 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists). Shane Knobloch has a team-high of 29 goals, with a goal-scoring streak of 22 games that is the 11^th longest in the nation and third longest in the Big Ten. Dante Kulas scored a season-high four goals last week.

Long-stick midfielder Ryan Splaine excelled last weekend PSU with a career-high four caused turnovers and five ground balls. He is currently fifth in the Big Ten with 1.25 caused turnovers per game and 10^th in ground balls per game with 3.33 (third among non-faceoff specialists). In Big Ten play, he has caused eight turnovers (third in the league) and collected 16 ground balls (tied for eighth and (third among non-faceoff specialists). On the season, he has new career-highs with 40 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers. He has tripled his caused turnovers and doubled his ground ball output from last season.

Goalkeeper Cardin Stoller has a 53.8 save percentage and 10.98 goals-against-average. At the 'X', Matt Soutar has won 55.7% and Cole Brams has won 53.4%.

All Big Ten

Cardin Stoller was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, it was announced this week. Stoller is the third Scarlet Knight to be named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year since RU became part of the league in 2015, joining teammate Shane Knobloch (2021) and Adam Charalambides (2016).

Shane Knobloch and Ross Scott were named First Team All-Big Ten. Knobloch was the lone midfielder on the first team. Rutgers has now had multiple First Team All-Big Ten players in five of the past six seasons. Scott earns All-Big Ten honors for the third straight season, with his first appearance on the First Team. Knobloch also was named All-Big Ten for the third straight season, making his second appearance on the First Team after also appearing there in 2022.

Tommy Mendyke was named the team's Sportsmanship Award winner. A first-year starter on defense, the junior had career-highs with 19 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers.

About Penn State

No. 10 Penn State, 15-9 victors over Rutgers last week, stands at 9-3 overall on the season and 3-2 in league play, earning the No. 3 seed while tying for second place in the conference, but losing a head-to-head tiebreak with Maryland. The Nittany Lions lead the conference in assists, man-down defense, points, saves, scoring margin, scoring offense and shot percentage.

PSU is led by TJ Malone, who has 32 goals and 29 assists for 61 points. Matt Traynor has a team-high 36 goals while Mac Costin has added 25 tallies. Malone leads the conference in points and assists.

In goal, Jack Fracyon has a 9.46 goals-against-average and 58.9% save percentage. He leads the Big Ten in save percentage and saves per game (13.5), ranking sixth nationally in both. Faceoffs are split by Chase Mullins (49.4%) and Colby Baldwin (40.4%).

Malone was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, while Fracyon was the Big Ten Specialist of the Year. The duo were both on the First Team All-Big Ten team, while Grant Haus, Alex Ross and Matt Traynor were on the Second Team.

About the Series

Rutgers leads the all-time series against Penn State, 46-26. Dating back to the first meeting in 1946, Rutgers' 46 wins over Penn State are the program's most over any one school. Since 2021, RU has won three of the past five meetings. Since 2018, each team has won four times.

This will be the second time that RU and Penn State meet twice in consecutive weeks, finishing the regular season against each other, then opening the Big Ten Tournament against each other in a different location. In 2019, with Penn State ranked No. 1 in the nation, RU faced Penn State on the road in the final week of the regular season, then welcomed them to SHI Stadium in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals the next week as the hosts of that year's event. PSU won both games that year.

While the two schools annually contest the rivalry game for the Friendship Cup, this game will not be a trophy game. The Friendship Cup is only awarded once per season, to the winner of that year's first matchup.

With a Win

Head coach Brian Brecht's 100^th win as RU's head coach
Third all-time win at the Big Ten Tournament (first Quarterfinals victory)
Rutgers' first top-10 win and second ranked win of the season.
- First top-10 win since Feb. 25, 2023 (over No. 5/6 Loyola).
- First top-10 conference win since March 27, 2022 over No. 8/9 Ohio State.
- First ranked win over Penn State since Feb. 20, 2021, a 11-9 win over No. 6 PSU.
47^th all-time win over Penn State, RU's most over any one opponent, and fourth win in the past six meetings.

Milestone Tracker

Ross Scott has 179 career points, moving past John Danowski and Greg Rinaldi to 11^th place all-time at RU after last weekend's game. Next up, he needs 12 points to tie Tom Sweeney with 191 to crack the top-10. Four of the 10 players ahead of him played for RU under Brian Brecht in the Big Ten era (Kieran Mullins, 2^nd, 230; Jules Heningburg, 3^rd, 207; Adam Charalambides, 5^th, 201; Scott Bieda, 9^th, 193).

Shane Knobloch has 98 career goals, needing two more to reach 100 goals for his career. He would become the 13^th player all-time at RU to reach 100 career goals. Ironically, Knobloch's sister, Kacey Knobloch, who plays at James Madison, reached 100 goals for her career last weekend.

Knobloch is three goals shy from tying his previous career-high of 32 goals, set in 2022 in 19 games. His goals per game average of 2.23 is the best of his career. He is also three points shy of 150 career points and one assist shy of 50 career assists.

Brian Brecht has won 99 games at the helm of Rutgers, one shy of 100 victories as RU's bench boss.

Big Ten Tournament Bracket Analysis

With a victory, Rutgers would face No. 2 seed Maryland in the tournament Semifinals. That game would be Thursday, May 2, hosted by Ohio State, with a game time on 8:30 pm, and televised by Big Ten Network. The other semifinal matchup features No. 1 seed Johns Hopkins versus the winner of the 4-5 game between Michigan and Ohio State. The Big Ten Championship will be held in Columbus on Saturday, May 4, with an 8 pm game on BTN.

Big Ten Tournament History

Rutgers is making its seventh appearance in the Big Ten Tournament, with a 2-6 record. Twice, RU won semifinal games, in 2016 against Johns Hopkins, and in 2022 against Ohio State.

The Quarterfinal round was established in 2021, and RU has made just one appearance, after receiving a bye in 2021 and 2022. Last season, RU was also the No. 6 seed, falling to Maryland. RU has never won as the lower seeded team, with their two wins coming as the No. 2 seed over the No. 3 seed, and 0-6 as the lower seeded team.