April 6, 2017 Villanova, Pa. -
| Watch | Villanova Game Notes | Denver Game Notes
Facing Off: No. 18 Villanova men's lacrosse team will travel to Denver, Colorado to take on the No. 5 Denver Pioneers for the Wildcats first road BIG EAST game of the season. Faceoff is set for 2 p.m. ET in the Mile High City and can be seen on FS1.
Series History: Villanova is looking to give Denver their first conference loss. Since joining in 2014 the Pioneers have not lost a regular season conference game. The only BIG EAST team they have lost to are the Marquette Golden Eagles in the conference tournament championship game in 2016. All-time Villanova is 3-8 against Denver with their last win coming in 2001.
A Look at Villanova: The Wildcats are riding a five game winning streak into Denver. Villanova has defeated Brown, Maryland, Bucknell, Fairfield, and Marquette during the run that started on March 7th. The Wildcats picked up two of the wins in overtime, Danny Seibel scored the game winner against Maryland and Christian Cuccinello netted the final goal against the Golden Eagles. Villanova's primary faceoff specialist Luke Palmadesso returned for the BIG EAST opener after not playing the last five games due to an injury. He went 4-for-7 from the X in his first game back.
Villanova's Offense: Jack Curran and Cuccinello have led the Villanova offense this season, both have a team high 42 points. Curran has netted a team high of 28 goals while Cuccinelllo has a team and league best of 19 assists. Curran scored the last two goals in regulation on Saturday to tie the game up at nine; he is now tied for seventh all-time in goals scored, with 92 in his career. Jake Froccaro has 34 points (24 goals, 10 assists), Danny Seibel has 23 (17 goals, 6 assists), and Devin McNamara has 18 (8 goals, 10 assists).
Villanova's Defense: Danny Sweeney, Patrick Kennedy, and Zachary Kryza have formed into a strong backfield for the Cats. During the win over Marquette they helped to keep the Golden Eagles scoreless for the final 19 minutes of the game. Sophomore goalie Nick Testa, who has earned four of the wins, had three huge saves including one with just three seconds to go in regulation against Marquette. On the season he now has 58 saves, an 11.31 goals against average, and a .436 save percentage. Defensive midfielder TJ Comizio, who picked up the ground ball after Marquette's midfielder dropped it had a team high five ground balls and also scored his first career goal in the BIG EAST opener.
A Look at Denver: The Pioneer's picked up their first conference win against the Georgetown Hoyas last weekend by a final of 20-11. Overall Denver is 6-2 on the season with their two losses coming to North Carolina (13-9) and Ohio State (16-7). In the BIG EAST Denver leads the conference in goals per game (13.11) and ground balls per game (30.89). Both of these are thanks to attackman Connor Cannizzaro and faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste.
Denver's Offense: Cannizzaro has a team high 39 points on 22 goals and 17 assists, against Georgetown he finished with a career high nine points. Freshman Ethan Walker has made his impact on the attack line, the rookie has netted 22 goals and dished out 12 assists this season. This season he has completed hat tricks in six of nine games. The third man on the Pioneers starting attack line is Austin French, the sophomore has 21 points this season on 11 goals and 10 assists. 20 other players have earned at least one point this season with Colton Jackson and Connor Donahue both having contributed double digit point totals over the previous nine games.
Denver's Defense: Baptiste etched his name into NCAA history last weekend when he is now 9th all-time in career faceoff wins and 1st in school history. Last weekend against Georgetown he won 26-of-30 faceoff's and scooped up 17 ground balls. This season his .744 winning percentage is 1st in the country and his ground ball average of 10.00 per game is 2nd. In goal will be Alex Ready, the sophomore has played just over 500 minutes between the posts this season and 64 saves. His goals against average is 9.22 and he has a .451 save percentage.
