Facing Off: The Villanova Wildcats will close out their three-game home stand on Tuesday afternoon when No. 4 Maryland comes to Villanova Stadium. First faceoff is scheduled for 4:00 P.M. and can be seen on Nova Nation All-Access.
A Look at Villanova: The Wildcats will take on the third straight top 5 ranked team on Tuesday afternoon. Villanova fell to No. 1 Penn State and No. 3 Yale over the last two weekends. During Saturday's game against the Bulldogs Villanova tied the game up 9-9 at halftime but were outscored 9-3 in the second half and fell by a final of 18-12.
Leading the Wildcats offensively on Saturday was junior
Colin Crowley, who finished with a career high seven points. Crowley earned BIG EAST Weekly Honors after having three goals and four assists against Yale. Senior
Connor Kirst had five points during the matchup while
Corey McManus had four. All three lead the Wildcats in points over the first two games while six other Wildcats have contributed at least one point.
On defense
Matt Webster and
Patrick Kennedy both have three caused turnovers and Kennedy leads the team in ground balls with nine. Freshman
Justin Coppola has won 14 faceoffs so far this season along with five ground balls. In goal
Will Vitton has played over 107 minutes between the posts and has 17 saves while
Brendan Haggerty played the other 12 minutes and picked up two saves.
A Look at Maryland: The Terrapins are 3-0 entering Tuesday's game and are coming off a 17-15 win over No. 6 Penn. Maryland started the season with a 11-goal win over #20 High Point and the following week picked up the double overtime comeback win against Richmond. Last weekend Maryland hosted #6 Penn and scored the final six goals to pick up a 17-15 win.
The Terrapins have three players with double digit points this season, Logan Wisnauskas (18), Jared Bernhardt (1), and Anthony DeMaio (14). It was Wisnauskas who set up DeMaio for the double overtime game winner against Richmond. Taking a majority of Maryland's faceoff's this season has been Justin Shockey, who is 35-66 (.530) with a game high 20 ground balls. In goal has been Chris Brandau, who has 44 saves and a 12.71 goals against average in just over 184 minutes.
