PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's lacrosse will look to return to the win column this coming Sunday, April 16 as the ThunderWolves play host to Colorado Mesa for 12 p.m. Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match-up at the Art and Lorraine Gonzales Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium.
Sunday's game will be the first of two meetings this season between the two schools as the Pack will close the 2023 regular season with a 6 p.m. game in Grand Junction, Colo., against the Mavericks on Friday, April 28.
Sunday's game with Mesa will mark the third of four consecutive home games for the Pack as they opened the homestand on April 1 with an 11-6 win against Adams State, before falling 25-11 this past Friday against Westminster and will conclude the homestand on Wednesday, April 19 with a 6:30 p.m. game against Colorado College.
CSU Pueblo, who is coached by
Sean Blair, enters Sunday's game fresh off that 25-11 loss at home last Friday against Westminster. In that game, the Pack tied their season high in both goals (11) and assists (7).
Offensively, the Pack have scored 62 goals in nine games and are averaging 6.9 goals per game as freshman midfielder
Lane Lessley (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood) leads the way with 14 goals and has added seven assists for a team-best 21 points. Senior attacker
Logan Naves (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Highlands Ranch) is second in goals with 11 and has also added eight assists for 19 points, while freshman midfielder
Nathan Liderman (Bend, Ore./Summitt) is third in goals with 10 and has two assists for 12 points.
Overall, five Pack players have tallied five or more goals on the season and three players have recorded seven or more assists as senior midfielder
Ian Noonan (Wilmington, Del./University of Tampa) leads the way with 10 assists and is fifth in the league in assists per game at 1.5. Along with Noonan, Naves and Lessley have recorded eight and seven assists respectively.
Lessley has taken a team-high 49 shots and put 28 of those shots on goal, while Naves has taken 35 shots and put 27 shots on goal, which is a 77.1 shots on goal percentage. Two other Pack players – freshman midfielder
Chris Easley (Southington, Conn./Weber) and Noonan – have taken 20 or more shots as Easley has taken 28 and Noonan has taken 23.
Freshman midfielder
Bryce Campbell (Meridian, Id./Meridian) has been the primary face-off person for the Pack this season as he is 68-for-158 on face-offs. In addition, sophomore midfielder
Harley Williams (Edmonton, Alberta/Dominican University) is 9-for-35 on face-offs and senior midfielder
Turner Dirk (Strathmore, Alberta/Holy Trinity Academy) is 6-for-19 on face-offs.
Defensively, the Pack are allowing 15.7 goals per game and have caused 52 turnovers and collected 179 ground balls.
Junior defender
Cornelius Healy (Keller, Texas/Keller) leads the way in ground balls with 23, while Dirk has had 2- and Naves has recorded 17. Dirk and Healy have combined to cause 16 turnovers as Healy leads the way with nine and Dirk has had seven.
Graduate student
Ethan Ferrie (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) leads the way in goal for the Pack as he has recorded 135 saves and allowed 125 goals. His 14.9 saves per game are tops in the league, while his 51.1 percent save percentage is also tops in the league. Ferrie has been a two-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Week this season and recorded a school record 24 saves earlier this season at Maryville (Mo.) University.
ABOUT COLORADO MESA
Colorado Mesa, who plays at Adams State on Friday before traveling to Pueblo to meet the Pack, comes into this weekend's action sporting a 9-2 overall record and a 1-0 mark in the RMAC. The Mavericks have won two straight seven of its last eight games overall with the lone loss being a 19-11 setback at then No. 3 ranked Tampa on March 20. Mesa's lone game in RMAC play prior to this weekend was a 23-8 home win over Westminster on April 1.
As a team, Colorado Mesa is one of the top offensive teams in Division II men's lacrosse as the Mavs are fourth nationally in scoring as they average 17.4 goals per game and are outscoring its foes by nearly eight goals per game, which is sixth-best nationally. Mesa has scored 191 goals and recorded 115 assists in 11 games.
The team's top goal scorer is redshirt junior attacker Jed Brummett as he has scored 41 goals in 11 games, while redshirt junior attacker AJ Switzer is second in goals scored with 20 and has added an RMAC-leading 25 assists for 45 points. Switzer averages an RMAC-best 4.09 per game.
Overall, seven Mavs have posted double-digit goals on the season and four Mavs have had 10 or more assists.
In addition to Switzer's RMAC-leading 45 points, Brummett has scored 42 points and redshirt junior midfielder Drew Eickelman has had 34 points as he has scored 17 goals and had 17 assists.
Switzer and Brummett have each taken 74 shots on the season, while redshirt junior midfielder James Steinke has taken 66 shots and Eickelman has recorded 57 shots.
Junior Dylan Checketts has been strong in the face-off circle as he leads the RMAC and is eighth nationally in face-off percentage at 63.8 percent (153-for-240). Sophomore midfielder Mike Edwards is 48-for-76 on face-offs this season.
One of the biggest strengths for Mesa's team is their ability to clear the ball as they are second nationally in clearing percentage at 93.9 percent. The Mavs are 215-for-229 on clears this season.
Defensively, the Mavs led the league in caused turnovers per game as they are averaging 9.5 per game as they have caused 104 in 11 games and have collected 404 ground balls and are averaging 36.7 grounds balls per game.
Junior defender Trey Corkin III leads the team in caused turnovers with 14, while Checketts is one of 14 Mavs to record double-digit ground balls as he has collected 79 on the year. He averages nearly eight ground balls per game. Corkin III is second in ground balls with 43 and Eickelman is third with 39 ground balls.
Mesa has played four different players in goal this season with the two primary goalies being sophomore Calvin Doucette and redshirt sophomore Mac Bayless. Doucette has played in all 11 games and has logged nearly 485 minutes in the cage and has allowed 79 goals and made 72 saves while recording an RMAC-best 9.79 goals-against-average. Bayless has played in four games and logged a little over 125 minutes and has allowed 14 goals and made 19 saves.
Mesa is coached by Troy Moyer, who is in his first season as the Mavs head coach after serving as an assistant coach from 2019-22. Moyer, who played collegiate lacrosse at Sacred Heart University, from 2012-15.
Sunday's game will mark the first of two meetings this season between the two schools and the 18th overall all-time meeting in the series. Mesa has won all 17 previous match-ups in the series, including collecting a 17-10 win in the team's most recent meeting last season in the RMAC Tournament Semifinals in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mesa is 7-0 in the series in Pueblo and 8-0 on its home field and leads 14-0 in RMAC play against the Pack.
