Garden City, N.Y. - It will be the second meeting of the season, however, this matchup between the Adelphi University men's lacrosse team and the LIU Post Pioneers will have more implications than the previous meeting as a trip to the National Championship is on the line.
The Brown and Gold advanced to Sunday's contest with a thrilling 8-7 victory versus Dowling last Saturday. Meanwhile, the Pioneers are in the semifinal round after a 9-3 win at Le Moyne.
Earlier this season, the Panthers defeated LIU Post in Brookville, N.Y. by a final score of 11-7 after leading 7-1 at the half on Tuesday, March 11.
Connor Duudy ledd the offense for Adelphi with three goals, whileÂ
Nick Watson,
Salvatore Tuttle, and
Brandon Goodwin chipped in two goals and one assist.
Gregory Puskuldjian controlled the action at the face-off "X" for Adelphi, winning 11 of 18 face-offs and had a team-high eight ground balls. With the victory, the Brown and Gold control a 41-19-1 lead in the series with the former conference rival.
Tuttle leads the Panther attack with 75 points on the season behind 55 goals and 20 assists the led him to being named the Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year. He also garnered the NE-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player award after lifting his team to the championship with an overtime goal in a 13-12 victory versus Merrimack on Sunday, May 4. In between the pipes,
Aidan Bennardo has played in all 18 games and posts a 8.01 goals-against-average. Puskuldjian has continued to the get the Panthers going at the face-off, having a win percentage of 69.4 while pciking up 8.94 ground balls per-game.
Adelphi is looking to win its eighth National Championship this season, previously winning in 1979, 1981, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, and 2001. The winner of the Panthers and Pioneers goes on to face the winner of the other semifinal matchup between Limestone and Tampa next Sunday in the final in Baltimore, Md.
Live video can be viewed at www.aupanthers.tv while up-to-date stats can be found at www.sidearmstats.com/adelphi/mlax.
