Apr 27 2013

UMass men’s lacrosse players, coaches anxiously await playoff fate

Stephen Hewitt/DailyCollegian

Stephen Hewitt/Collegian

After topping Delaware, 16-8, in Friday night’s regular season finale at Garber Field, the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team is now anxiously awaiting its fate with its season hanging in the balance on Saturday night.

The Minutemen (7-7, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Association) need Penn State to win at Hofstra and Towson to beat Saint Joseph’s on the Tigers’ Senior Night in order to clinch the fourth and final CAA Tournament spot. Both games are on at 7 p.m. and both scenarios are very realistic.

The Nittany Lions are undefeated in CAA play and can win the conference regular-season title outright with a win over the Pride, whom UMass beat, 9-8, last weekend.

The Hawks’ only win in conference play this season came against the Minutemen at home, giving them the tie-breaker if they defeat Towson on Saturday night. However, the Tigers haven’t lost a home game in conference play this season, while Saint Joseph’s has stumbled to four-straight losses down the stretch.

While UMass should like its postseason chances, senior attack Will Manny can’t bear waiting to find out if his career is still intact.

“I’ll be watching,” Manny said. “It’s at (7 p.m. on Saturday) so it’s kind of annoying we have to wait the whole entire day, but we did what we needed to do. “

Fellow senior Kyle Smith, who lives with Manny, doesn’t plan on joining his teammate in watching the games. In fact, he doesn’t plan on watching at all.

“Probably not,” Smith said, “because you just get too pissed off when one team scores. But I’ll probably follow it every quarter.”

UMass coach Greg Cannella said after Friday’s win that he plans on taking a trip to Hofstra on Saturday with assistant coaches Doc Schneider and Brian Jacovina to do some scouting — the Minutemen would play Penn State on Wednesday in the CAA semifinal if things go their way — as well as hope for a positive result.

When asked if being at Saturday’s game will be as nerve-wracking as it gets, Cannella said, “I guess. When you do what you do and you go watch a game, it’s actually fun to watch other people play. But we are scouting (Penn State).”

While the players and coaches may have different approaches to Saturday’s games, they all share one hope: to get in the CAA Tournament and keep the season going for at least a few more days.

“You wanna play. It’s the playoffs, it’s a new season if you make it past (Saturday) and get some help (Saturday). We did what we needed to do (Friday). It’s what you live for, to keep on going.”

Apr 27 2013

Report: Eric Filiou fourth UMass hockey player cut

Joe Meloni of College Hockey News confirmed with a team source on Friday night that junior forward Eric Filiou is no longer with the Massachusetts hockey team.

Filiou is the fourth player in the last couple of days who have been reportedly cut from the team, joining teammates Kevin Boyle, K.J. Tiefenwerth and Rob Dongara on the list of players asked to leave.

Reports have said that UMass was expected to come into next season with more players on its roster than most teams carry, and this is a move to simply free up roster space as well as scholarship money so UMass coach John Micheletto can bring in his own crop of players and move on from the Don “Toot” Cahoon era.

Filiou played in just 16 games for UMass last season, scoring a goal and an assist while missing some time due to injury.

Stay with the Daily Collegian for any more updates regarding UMass hockey this offseason.

Apr 26 2013

Rapid Reaction: UMass 16, Delaware 8

The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team (7-7, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Association) kept its CAA Tournament hopes alive Friday night with a convincing 16-8 win over Delaware at Garber Field.

Offensive explosion: The Minutemen offense came alive Friday night with 16 goals against the Blue Hens. A majority of those goals came in the second quarter when UMass scored eight goals on 21 shots.

Manny and Smith: The two main offensive weapons for UMass were seniors Kyle Smith and Will Manny. Smith scored six goals while Manny tallied four.

Senior Night: Friday was Senior Night for UMass and as a result, the Minutemen celebrated the accomplishments of its eight seniors – Bobby Tyler, Ryan Hollenbaugh, Brett Tobin, Colin Fleming, Smith, K.R. Jurgelevich, Jake Smith and Manny.

The Minutemen will now have to wait and hope that Towson defeats Saint Joseph’s and Penn State defeats Hofstra. If both of those teams win tomorrow, UMass will make the CAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

Apr 26 2013

1st Half Thoughts: UMass 11, Delaware 4

The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team leads Delaware, 10-4, at halftime. Here are some thoughts from the first two quarters of play.

Senior strength - In a must-win game on Senior Night to have a chance to keep the season and careers of eight players alive, UMass’ seniors came up big in the first half. The Minutemen have had arguably their best offensive half of the season much to the credit of their senior class, which has been responsible for eight of UMass’ goals so far. Kyle Smith has five goals for the Minutemen while Will Manny (two goals, two assists) and Colin Fleming have also found the scoreboard. UMass’ struggles this season, especially offensively, could be credited to a lack of cohesion with the ball after both Manny and Fleming missed significant time with injuries. But the Minutemen have looked more in sync offensively than they have all year and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Taking advantage - Delaware has played like a team with nothing to play for tonight, and UMass has taken advantage. Joe Calvello has dominated the faceoffs, and even assisted Smith for a goal right off the draw following a Blue Hens goal. Calvello even scored a goal of his own off a faceoff at 6:30 of the second quarter. On top of that, Delaware has struggled to keep possession as the Minutemen have made forcing turnovers look easy. It all started on UMass’ first goal of the game at 11:39 of the first quarter. The Minutemen were a man up and Blue Hens goalkeeper Conor Peaks failed to make a clear. Instead, Manny scooped up the groundball and got his team on the scoreboard. Delaware has struggled offensively as well. While the Blue Hens have found a way to beat UMass goalkeeper Zachary Oliveri at times, they’ve taken some poor shots that have gone way off target.

Apr 26 2013

Pregame notes: UMass vs. Delaware

MASSACHUSETTS MINUTEMEN (6-7, 1-4 CAA) VS. DELAWARE BLUE HENS (5-9, 1-4 CAA) 

GAME NOTES

  • The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team comes into tonight’s regular season finale with its CAA Tournament hopes at stake. The Minutemen not only need to top Delaware tonight, but they also need losses from both Hofstra and Saint Joseph’s tomorrow night to clinch the fourth and final postseason spot, and earn the right to take on Penn State in Wednesday’s first round matchup. UMass hasn’t won a home game since its season opener against Army back in February. The Minutemen’s eight seniors — Will Manny, Kyle Smith, Ryan Hollenbaugh, Bobby Tyler, K.R. Jurgelevich, Brett Tobin, Colin Fleming and Jake Smith — were honored before the game for Senior Night ceremonies.
  • The Blue Hens come into tonight’s game with virtually nothing to play for but pride after losing to the Nittany Lions last Saturday, eliminating them from postseason contention. Delaware could very well play spoiler for UMass tonight with a win on Senior Night at Garber, led by senior midfielder Nick Diachenko with 33 goals for the season.

STARTERS

UMass

Attack – Will Manny, Kyle Smith, Grant Whiteway

Midfield – Ryan Izzo, Joe Calvello, Brett Tobin

Defense – Ryan Hollenbaugh, Kyle Karaska, Jake Smith

Goal – Zach Oliveri

Delaware

Attack – Eric Smith, Ian Robertson, Brian Kormondy

Midfield – Connor McRoy, Nick Diachenko, Danny Keane

Defense – Trip Ashley, Brandon Worrall, James Connelly

Goal – Conor Peaks

Apr 26 2013

Boyle, Tiefenwerth among those reportedly cut from UMass hockey

The winds of change appear to be blowing for the Massachusetts hockey team.

Multiple reports have surfaced that sophomore goaltender Kevin Boyle and freshman forward K.J. Tiefenwerth have been asked not to return to the Minutemen, and that more cuts may be on the horizon.

Fear The Triangle has also confirmed that Northeastern transfer Rob Dongara won’t be joining UMass next season after sitting out 2012-13 due to NCAA regulations.

Reports have indicated that other unnamed players may also be on their way out. There is also said to be the possibility that UMass coach John Micheletto is cleaning out some of former UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon’s recent recruiting classes to free up roster space and scholarship money to bring in his own players.

The Minutemen may very well be heading into 2013-14 with a new-look roster with the reported cuts along with the departure of defenseman Conor Allen for the NHL.

Boyle started 20 games for UMass last season, finishing with an 8-10-2 record with a 2.73 goals against average and .897 save percentage. The netminder played like one of the best in Hockey East early in the season, but struggled down the stretch, opening the door for fellow sophomore Steve Mastalerz to get a majority of the starts in the last couple months.

Tiefenwerth played 30 games for the Minutemen, but had limited success. The freshman finished with four goals and two assists with a minus-4 plus/minus rating.

Apr 25 2013

Former West Virginia guard Jabarie Hinds transferring to UMass

Former West Virginia point guard Jabarie Hinds is transferring to UMass, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.

Hinds, a sophomore, will have to sit out the 2013-14 season per NCAA transfer rules and will suit up for the Minutemen beginning in 2014-15. He’ll have two years of eligibility.

Hinds appeared in all 32 games for the Mountaineers last season as he averaged 7.4 points and 1.6 assists per game, but he lost his starting spot late in the season. Last week, Zagoria reported that Hinds narrowed his list to UMass and Atlantic 10 rival Saint Joseph’s.

The 5-foot-11 guard will join fellow transfer guard Derrick Gordon as well as Trey Davis in the backcourt in 2014-15. All three will be juniors at that point, which makes the backcourt loaded even after Chaz Williams graduates next year.

Stephen Hewitt can be reached at shewitt@student.umass.edu and followed on Twitter @steve_hewitt.