UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 1 Penn State men's lacrosse team heads to Ohio to take on Cleveland State on Saturday, March 23 at 12 p.m. at Krenzler Field.
Penn State at Cleveland State – 12 p.m.
Live Stats
THE MATCH-UP
Penn State and Cleveland State will match-up for the third consecutive year. Penn State holds a 2-0 lead in the series and both games were played in University Park. In 2018, Penn State won 16-5 and Dylan Foulds had a break-out game with four goals and Nick Spillane led the team with six points on four assists and two goals.
WEEK 5 ROUND-UP
Let's throw it back to week 4 for the recap since week 5 was a bye week for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State took down former-No. 3 Cornell, 19-13, on Friday night, and then followed it up with a 24-11 win over Jacksonville on Sunday to be the lone team to go 2-0 at the Crown Lacrosse Classic in Charlotte.
Over the that weekend Penn State saw junior faceoff man Gerard Arceri surpass the school's career faceoff wins record. On his 14th faceoff win of the game against Jacksonville on Sunday, Arceri become the Penn State record holder for career faceoff wins with 511, he now sits at 512 for his career. Starting the day at third on the all-time list, Arceri passed both second-place Greg Gurenlian (508; 2003-06) and first-place Danny Henneghan (510; 2010-13), to take sole possession of the top.
The Nittany Lions also saw redshirt junior Grant Ament take hold of the PSU single season assists record. On his seventh assist of the afternoon on Sunday, Ament broke the Penn State single season assist record of 44 set by both Gary Martin (1982) and Jeff Connor (1988). Ament is now at 110 career assists, good for second all-time, trailing only Martin who recorded 156 from 1981-84.
NCAA STAT RANKINGS
As a team, the Nittany Lions currently ran No. 1 in the nation in six categories. They are the top team in man-up offense (0.652), points per game (30.71), scoring margin (8.43), scoring offense (18.86), assists per game (11.86), and shot percentage (.436).
Redshirt junior Grant Ament currently leads the nation in assists per game at 6.57 as well as points per game at 8.00.
Junior Mac O'Keefe holds the top spot in goals per game at 4.43 and is second in individual man-up goals at 5. O'Keefe is also seventh in points per game at 5.43.
Freshman TJ Malone is fifth in both shot percentage (.607) and seventh in man up goals (4).
Junior Gerard Arceri is ninth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage at .637 and eighth in groundballs at 8.86.
ACTIVE STREAKS
Redshirt junior Grant Ament has the fourth longest point scoring streak in the nation, recording a point in all 38 of his career games played are 60-110-170. Senior Pat Spencer of Loyola currently leads the list at 57 as a senior at 118-188-306. Ament's streak is the longest active in the Big Ten with Michigan's Brent Noseworthy following at 33 games.
Junior Mac O'Keefe is on a 14-game goal scoring streak, dating back to March 17, 2018. He has scored 51 goals during that time.
DRAFTED
Penn State saw Chris Sabia and Nick Spillane picked in the top-10 of the 2019 Major League Lacrosse Draft on March 8 in at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.
Sabia, a defenseman from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, was selected in the first round at the No. 8 pick and the first selection by the Dallas Rattlers. "I am extremely honored to have been drafted by the Dallas Rattlers," Sabia said of his selection. "I'd especially like to thank Coach [Jeff] Tambroni and Coach [Peter] Toner. They have done a tremendous job allowing me to grow as a player and a young man."
Spillane, a midfielder from Franklin Square, New York, was the first pick of the second round, No. 10 overall, by the Ohio Machine. "Getting drafted is an unbelievable feeling," Spillane said of his selection. "There have been so many people who have had an unmeasurable impact on my growth as a person and a player. I am so thankful for the opportunity to join the [Ohio] Machine organization. I wouldn't be here without the help of all of my coaches, especially Coach [Jeff] Tambroni. From the day I stepped on campus, he challenged me to grow and develop into a better player and teammate. I am so grateful for all the time and effort he has put into me, which has definitely allowed me to grow and mature through my four years."
ARCERI, AMENT & O'KEEFE ON TEWAARATON WATCH LIST
Penn State men's lacrosse juniors Grant Ament, Gerard Arceri and Mac O'Keefe were named to the 2019 Tewaaraton Watch List by the Tewaaraton Foundation committee.
Ament and Arceri were named to the initial list on February 28, while O'Keefe was added in the first round of additions on March 21.
Ament, a redshirt junior from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, has made his first appearance on a Tewaaraton Watch List.
This marks Arceri's third-straight appearance on the watch list as he was named added in the first round of addition in the 2017 season and was on the first edition in 2018. He made it to the final 25 and was considered a Tewaaraton Nominee in 2018.
This season, O'Keefe, an attackman out of Syosset, N.Y., has scored a team-best 31 goals, adding seven assists, 14 ground balls and four caused turnovers. He currently holds the top spot in the nation in goals per game at 4.43 and is second in individual man-up goals at 5. O'Keefe is also seventh in points per game at 5.43. He also currently leads the nation in career goals per game at 3.16. This marks O'Keefe's first time on a Tewaaraton Watch List.
