MEN'S LACROSSE GNAC TOURNEY PREVIEW: #5 EMMANUEL VS. #4 NORWICH

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Emmanuel College men's lacrosse team has qualified for the upcoming Great Northeast Athletic Conference playoffs and will travel to Norwich University this Tuesday, May 2 at 7 p.m. in the GNAC First Round. 

After posting a 9-8 overall record alongside a 5-3 record versus league opponents, the fourth-seeded Cadets will welcome the fifth-seeded Saints from Emmanuel College to Northfield. The Cadets have qualified for all seven GNAC postseason tournaments in the conference's history and won the championship in 2013 while the Saints have qualified for GNAC tournament play each of the past five seasons, capturing the GNAC title in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Live Stats and Live Video of Tuesday's contest will be available on the Norwich Athletics website. 

LAST MEETING 

• Down by a 3-2 margin at halftime, the Norwich University men's lacrosse team rattled off eight of the game's final nine goals to capture a 10-4 victory over visiting Emmanuel (Mass.) College on Sunday at Sabine Field.
• The Cadets snapped Emmanuel's 33-game winning streak versus Great Northeast Athletic Conference opponents that dates back to Norwich's 13-8 victory over the Saints in the 2013 GNAC Semifinals.
• Emmanuel has won the last three league championships.
• Junior Josh Jenkins (Centennial, Colo.) set a career-high mark with seven goals for the Cadets. The last student-athlete from Norwich to record seven goals was Joe Galante against Johnson State on May 4, 2011.
• Sophomore Aidan Moulton (Danvers, Mass.) scored twice while sophomore Cody Moore (Canton, N.Y.) rounded out the goal scoring for Norwich, who saw five different players record at least one assist in the tilt. 

SCOUTING THE CADETS

• Norwich posted Jenkins leads the Cadets with 48 points on offense, registering 35 goals and 13 assists (35-13=48) to rank 10th in the GNAC – he recently became the 16th student-athlete to register at least 100 career points (76-33=109).
• Junior Ian Kennedy (Gloucester, Mass.) ranks second on the team with 16 goals and 12 assists for 28 points (16—12=28), reeling in 34 ground balls.
• Seven different Cadets registered at least 10 caused turnovers for Norwich.
• Senior James Connors (Marshfield, Mass.) and junior Zach Adler (Stratham, N.H.) rank sixth and 11th, respectively, in the league with 24 and 16 caused turnovers.
• Connors' 24 caused turnovers are the second-most on record for the Cadets since the statistic was first reliably tracked in 2011.
• Norwich leads the GNAC with an 8.43 goals-against average, limiting opponents to only 145 goals across 17 games.
• Norwich is tied with Mount Ida for the league lead in caused turnovers (181), but the Cadets hold the outright lead in the GNAC with 667 ground balls.
• The Cadets were the only team to have two-different goaltenders win GNAC Goalie of the Week honors in 2017.
• Norwich was projected to finish third out of nine teams in the league's annual Preseason Coaches' Poll. 

SCOUTING THE SAINTS

• Emmanuel posted a 7-9 overall record in the regular season alongside an even record of 4-4 against league opponents.
• After beginning the year with a 1-5 record, Emmanuel edged Mass.-Dartmouth by a 13-9 margin on Mar. 28 before losing to Norwich on Apr. 2.
• The Saints finished its GNAC calendar strong, however, losing by one goal to Johnson & Wales (R.I.) before dropping two games to Mount Ida and Lasell.
• Emmanuel's leading point scorer is Charlie Moran, who has dropped 34 goals and 17 assists for 51 points (34-17=51) – he is tied for second in the league with eight man-up goals.
• Michael Sousa is second in the GNAC with 145 ground balls, winning an impressive 206-of-323 (63.8%) of his face-offs.
• Defenseman Chris Baglivi also ranks within the top-10 in the GNAC with 64 ground balls.
• Baglivi joins Brendan Gallagher as the first and second-ranked, respectively, in caused turnovers with 41 and 30. 

ALL-TIME SERIES

• The teams have played to a 4-4 record in the all-time series since first meeting on Mar. 28, 2012, a 6-2 victory for the Cadets.
• After winning the first three meetings in the all-time series, the Cadets had dropped four-straight games to the Saints before earning a key GNAC win earlier in the 2017 season.
• Norwich was ousted from the 2014 GNAC tournament by Emmanuel, losing 11-2 on the road in the semifinals.

*Release courtesy of Norwich University Athletic Communications