GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's lacrosse team continues its push through the most challenging part of its 2022 schedule this week as the Pioneers welcome fourth-ranked Limestone University to Pioneer Field for a 4 p.m. match on Saturday.
The Pioneers (7-2, 1-2 South Atlantic Conference) dropped their second straight game last Saturday with a 22-9 setback to 14th-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne at Pioneer Field. This will be the fourth time in program history that the Pioneers have played back-to-back games against ranked opponents, and the seventh time in as many all-time meetings with the Saints that Limestone has been ranked.
Saturday's matchup could hinge on the Pioneer man-up offense against the Saints' man-down defense. Tusculum leads Division II in extra-man percentage, converting 63.9 percent (23-for-36), while the Saints have allowed a conversion rate of just 25.0 percent (12-for-48).
PROFILING THE PIONEERS
Tusculum was held to a season-low nine goals against Lenoir-Rhyne, after scoring at least 12 goals in each of the first eight games of the season. The Pioneers continue to lead the SAC in scoring at 16.33 goals per game and are tops in the conference and third in Division II in shooting percentage at 40.2 percent.
Senior attack Nate Raymond is third in the SAC in goals with 35 and tied for second in the conference with 50 points. He stretched his streak of consecutive games with a goal to 19 and with a point to 22 games with a pair of goals against Lenoir-Rhyne. Raymond is the fourth player in program history to reach 50 points in a season, and is nine points shy of tying the single-season record of 59 set by Keegan Bell in 2019. Raymond is third in single-season goals at Tusculum with 35, trailing Bell who had 44 goals in 2019 and Ben Boyd who scored 37 goals in 2017. Nationally, Raymond is ninth in Division II in goals per game (3.89) and 10th in points per game (5.56).
Junior midfielder Tristan Kirkham has scored a career-high 30 goals and is second on the team with 38 points. Kirkham is tied for fifth in the SAC in goals and tied for ninth in points, while his seven man-up goals are tied for third in the league. Freshman attack Wesley Phillips was kept off the scoreboard for the first time this season against Lenoir-Rhyne, but still ranks fourth in the conference with 21 assists.
Senior Kale Lawrence reached 70 career goals when he scored his career-high 21st of the year against Lenoir-Rhyne, and graduate midfielder Lorenz Brown extended his point streak to 25 consecutive games with a goal against Lenoir-Rhyne. Brown has 19 goals and a career-high 28 points for the Pioneers, along with a career-best 25 ground balls. Senior midfielder Jordan Daniel recorded a goal and three assists against Lenoir-Rhyne and has career highs of 13 goals and 16 assists this season. Daniel has moved into second place on the program career assist list with 47, trailing only Liam Macdonald who had 75 assists from 2017-20.
Senior midfielder Andy Michalski is fourth in the SAC in faceoff winning percentage at 58.2 percent, and ranks second in the SAC and seventh in Division II in ground balls per game at 9.33. Michalski has 197 career ground balls and 384 career faceoff wins to hold the school record in both categories, and has also set the school single-season record for ground balls with 84 and faceoff wins with 159.
On defense, sophomore Nicholas Drennan scored his second goal of the season against Lenoir-Rhyne, and leads the defense with 20 ground balls and six caused turnovers. Senior defender Fred Harbinson has 18 ground balls and three caused turnovers, and senior Tyler Nunenmacher has 13 ground balls. Sophomore Nick May shares the team lead with Drennan with six caused turnovers.
Senior Ross Geiger is third in the SAC with 114 saves and ranks fifth in save percentage at .535. Geiger leads the SAC with 14.25 saves per game and has made 79 saves in his last four games for an average of 19.75 per game over that span. Geiger is 56 saves shy of the program career record of 496 saves set by Kevin Haggerty from 2015-17.
Tusculum is sixth in the SAC in clearing percentage, with a success rate of 82.7 percent. The Pioneers are 10th in man-down defense at 60.0 percent success rate, and are 11th in caused turnovers per game with 5.0 per contest. Tusculum ranks third in the SAC in faceoff winning percentage at .574.
SCOUTING THE SAINTS
Limestone (7-1, 2-1 SAC) earned its third straight win on Wednesday evening with a 15-9 win over Lander. Nine different players scored goals for the Saints, who outshot the Bearcats 59-41 and had a 47-37 advantage in ground balls. The Saints are 3-1 against ranked teams, with their only loss of the season an 11-10 overtime setback against Wingate at a neutral site in Charlotte on March 5.
The Saints' leading scorer is sophomore Chris Erneston who has 20 goals, followed by senior Dorian Faster and freshman Mike McGarry with 11 goals apiece. Senior Gavin Kesselring has 10 goals and a team-high nine assists for the Saints, who have received goals from 21 different players in their first eight games.
Senior Michael Logan has won 53.7 percent of his faceoffs and leads Limestone field players with 34 ground balls. Senior Kendall Collins has a team-high nine caused turnovers and 23 ground balls, while senior Steve Werner has 19 ground balls and eight caused turnovers. Freshman Kyle Keesee has a team-best 12 caused turnovers which is tied for fifth in the conference.
Senior William Baxter has started all eight games in goal for the Saints and leads the SAC in goals against average (7.28) and save percentage (.657). He has allowed more than 10 goals in a game just once, and has reached double figures in saves in five of his eight starts.
Limestone leads the SAC in team defense with a 7.99 goals against average and a .649 save percentage, but the Saints are just 10th in man up scoring at 21.4 percent (6-for-28). The Saints are ninth in the SAC in shots per game at 46.63 but are third in caused turnovers with 89.
ALL-TIME SERIES
The Saints are 6-0 all-time against the Pioneers, including two wins while ranked number-one in the country in 2016 and 2020. Tusculum has never scored more than seven goals in a game against Limestone, which has never scored fewer than 16 goals in a game against the Pioneers.
FOLLOW THE PIONEERS
Live stats are available for all home Tusculum University men's lacrosse matches. Links to stats and video for home and away matches are posted at tusculumpioneers.com.
