No. 18 Men’s Lacrosse Finishes Regular Season at No. 7 Penn State Friday

Friday, April 18

University Park, Pa.

6:00 PM

Rutgers University

Penn State

Photo by: Ben Solomon

No. 18 Men’s Lacrosse Finishes Regular Season at No. 7 Penn State Friday

Apr 15 | Men's Lacrosse

Big Ten Tournament Seeding Scenarios Live Stats Watch on Big Ten Network Rutgers Game Notes

6 PM Game on Big Ten Network

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 18 Rutgers men's lacrosse (6-7, 2-2 Big Ten) concludes the regular season this Friday night with a nationally televised game at No. 7/8 Penn State (8-3, 2-2 Big Ten). The 6 pm contest will be aired on Big Ten Network with Jack Kizer and Mitchell Pehlke on the call.

About Rutgers

Rutgers ranked No. 18 in the RPI, Media Poll and 19^th in the Coaches Poll after an 8-6 loss at home to current-No. 12 Michigan. Colin Kurdyla led RU offensively in that game with a hat trick and now leads RU with 20 goals on the season, tying last season's mark. Matthew Paolatto has won 60.6% of his faceoffs after a 13-of-19 mark against the Wolverines, and is 10^th nationally.

Defensively, long-stick midfielder Ryan Splaine now has a career-best 42 ground balls and 102 for his career, while notching 15 caused turnovers, one shy of his career-best. Ben Stephanos also has a career-best with 14 caused turnovers.

Goalkeeper Cardin Stoller leads RU to the 8^th best scoring defense in the nation (8.54), with the seventh best save percentage in the country (59.1%). He has notched a save percentage of 55% or better in 11 of the 13 games.

About Penn State

PSU enters the game with an 8-3 overall mark and are 2-2 in Big Ten conference play. The Nittany Lions opened the year at 6-1 in the non-conference slate, with the lone loss to a Princeton team currently ranked No. 2 nationally, and that in overtime. PSU also defeated then-No. 3 Cornell. In league play, the Nittany Lions took 4+ goal losses to Ohio State and Maryland, then rebounded with wins over Michigan (11-8) and Johns Hopkins (10-4).

Penn State ranks in the top-ten nationally in clearing percentage (seventh, 88.9%), turnovers (eighth, 14.18), assists (10^th, 8.27), faceoff percentage (10^th, 58.4%) and caused turnovers (10^th, 10.09). PSU is second in the Big Ten in scoring offense (12.73) and scoring margin while allowing just 9.0 goals per game.

Matt Traynor leads the Big Ten and is seventh nationally in goals per game (3.22), also leading the league in points per game (4.78). He leads the team with 29 goals and 43 assists. Rutgers' transfer Jack Aimone, who scored 54 goals in 43 games at RU, is second on the team with 16 goals and has 10 assists.

Goalkeeper Jack Fracyon has a 8.97 goals-against-average (13^th nationally) and a save percentage of 50.8%. Colby Baldwin has won 58.7% of his faceoffs (135-of-230). Kevin Parnham is second in the Big Ten with 1.91 caused turnovers per game along with 23 ground balls.

About the Series

Rutgers and Penn State play for the 'Friendship Cup'. The trophy debuted in 1998 as a symbol of the friendship of a group of four friends from Sewanhaka High School on Long Island who went off to college splitting two ways; one pair attending Penn State, and the other heading off to Rutgers, including the recently passed Tom Hayes, who was a Penn State alumn and then the long-time head coach at Rutgers. Since that trophy was instituted in 1998, RU has raised the Friendship Cup postgame as victors nine times.

RU is 46-27 in the all-time series but has lost three straight games. Since joining the Big Ten, RU is 5-7 against PSU. The teams played twice last year, in the regular season at Rutgers then at Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals.

With a Win

Fourth ranked win of the season
Second top-10 win of the season
First top-10 true road win since Feb. 27, 2021 at No. 6 Ohio State
First time winning two top-10 games in a season since 2022
First time winning two top-10 games in a season against Big Ten teams since 2021
47^th all-time win over Penn State, RU's most over any one opponent.

Big Ten Tournament Seeding Scenarios

Rutgers cannot get a bye and will play a Quarterfinal game. Despite multiple scenarios where RU can tie for 2nd, RU loses all the tiebreakers involved and cannot earn the No. 2 seed.
If Rutgers wins Friday vs. Penn State, the Scarlet Knights will host a quarterfinal game. RU will be the 3 Seed and Host Johns Hopkins.
If Rutgers loses Friday vs. Penn State AND Johns Hopkins beats Maryland, the Scarlet Knights will host a quarterfinal game. RU will be the 4 seed and host Maryland.
If Rutgers loses Friday vs. Penn State AND Maryland beats Johns Hopkins, Rutgers is on the road for the Quarterfinals. RU would be the 5 seed and travel to face either Penn State (if Michigan beats Ohio State) or Michigan (if Ohio State beats Michigan)