Lacrosse Game Central
 
HAMILTON, N.Y. (3/22/12) – The No. 12/13 Colgate men's lacrosse team will resume Patriot League play this weekend when it hosts Navy in its second league matchup of the season on Saturday, March 24 at 2 p.m. in Hamilton, N.Y.
 
The Raiders are coming off an important 12-6 win over undefeated No. 13 Fairfield on Saturday to help prepare them for their five straight league matchups leading up to the Patriot League Tournament at the end of April. Junior Peter Baum led the Raiders with six points from four goals and two assists while senior Jeff Ledwick and freshman Ryan Walsh had three points apiece from two goals and one assist each. Sophomore Brendon McCann also added two goals while juniors Matt Baker and James Queeney recorded one tally each.
 
RAIDERS' POINT LEADERS
Peter Baum leads Colgate (7-1, 1-0 PL) with 46 points from 33 goals and 13 assists. The junior, who leads the nation and the league with 4.13 goals per game and 5.75 points per game, is on a 35-game point streak, which is ranked eighth in the nation, is tied for seventh in the country with 19 career hat tricks, and is ranked 10th nationally for career goals by an active player with 96, which is also eighth in program history in career goals. He is followed by rookie Ryan Walsh and senior co-captain Jeff Ledwick. Walsh has 29 points from 19 goals and 10 assists while Ledwick has 16 goals and seven helpers for 23 points. Seven of Ledwick's goals are man-up which is ranked first in the league.
 
PATRIOT LEAGUE PLAY
The Raiders are one of three teams that are undefeated in league play and are also one of three teams with only one league game under their belt. No. 20 Bucknell sits at the top of the standings with a 2-0 league record. Behind the Bison are Colgate and No. 10/11 Lehigh with one win each. Navy sits in fourth with a 2-1 league record as the only team to have already played three league games. Army is fifth with one loss while Holy Cross and Lafayette are at the bottom with two losses apiece.
 
COLGATE VERSUS LEAGUE OPPONENTS
The team, which is on a five-game winning streak, leads the league in goals per game with 13.75 and has a total of 110 goals this season. The Raiders also lead the league in groundballs per game (35.88), points per game (21.38), shots per game (44.25), caused turnovers per game (11.00), shots on goal (216), and faceoff percentage (.546) with a league-high 112 faceoffs won. Nationally the team is ranked in the top-10 in five categories. Colgate is second in scoring offense, third in caused turnovers per game, fourth in points per game, fifth in win percentage (.833) and sixth in scoring margin (5.25).

WALSH LISTED SECOND IN FRESHMAN RANKINGS
Freshman Ryan Walsh was recently ranked second in the 2012 NCAA Lacrosse Freshman Rankings that was released on Mar. 21. In first place was rookie goalie Matt Poillon from Lehigh. This is how Walsh was described in the rankings: "The perfect compliment to Player of the Year candidate Peter Baum, Walsh is a balanced offensive threat who can share the scoring load for a Raider team that had high aspirations heading into 2012 because of its depth of complimentary pieces, but needed an attackman to step up. Walsh has risen to the challenge and helped Colgate to one of the nation's hottest starts." (click here to see the full release)
 
BAUM AND LAWRENCE WIN PL WEEKLY AWARDS
Junior Peter Baum and sophomore Bobby Lawrence were named the Patriot League Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week respectively on Monday for their performances last week. Baum, who earns his second Offensive Player Award this season, accumulated a total of 11 points in the week from seven goals and four assists. Lawrence received Defensive Player of the Week honors after a strong performance at defense for the Raiders. The sophomore had a total of eight groundballs and three caused turnovers, holding the Bearcats' fourth leading scorer and a Fairfield attackman both pointless and with only two shots each in the games. Lawrence now has a total of 25 groundballs and is tied for a team-best 14 caused turnovers, which is ranked 19th in the country for turnovers per game (1.75).
 
Other Raiders who have also received weekly awards are freshman Ryan Walsh who won the Rookie of the Week award twice this season as well as co-captains, junior James Queeney and senior Kevin Gordon who both received Defensive Player of the Week honors.
 
SERIES
Navy leads the all-time series against the Raiders, owning a 10-4 record since the teams first met in 1928. Colgate's four wins in the series were in 2006, 2008, 2009 and most recently in the 2011 season, when it defeated the Midshipmen 5-4 in Annapolis, Md. This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams in Hamilton, N.Y. with Navy holding a slight 2-1 advantage.
 
SCOUTING NAVY
The Midshipmen (4-3, 2-1 PL), who were picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, are coming off a 13-7 win over Holy Cross last weekend. They also have wins over VMI, Lafayette and Towson, and have suffered losses to Jacksonville, North Carolina and Bucknell.
 
Navy, which is on a three-game winning streak, is led by sophomore Tucker Hull who has 40 points from 20 goals, two of which are man-up, and 20 assists. Hull, who is ranked second in the country in both points per game (5.71) and assists per game (2.86), leads the league in assists per game, is second in points per game, and is fourth in goals per game (2.86). Following Hull are sophomore Sam Jones and senior Taylor Reynolds. Jones has 19 points from 10 goals and nine assists while Reynolds has nine goals and six assists for 15 points. Defending the net is reigning PL Goalie of the Week, RJ Wickham, who has played and started in all seven games, has an 8.92 goals against average and a total of 67 saves for a .536 save percentage.
 
RAIDERS CLIMB NATIONAL POLLS
The Colgate men's lacrosse team jumped up several spots in the national polls this week, landing the No. 12 spot in the USILA Coaches' Poll and the No. 13 rank in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll that were both released today.
 
Colgate, which currently has its best start since 1993, is on a five-game winning streak that started at the beginning of the month. After starting the season ranked No. 19 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Preseason Poll and receiving votes in the USILA Coaches' Preseason Poll, the Raiders jumped back into the national rankings last week after defeating Hobart and Holy Cross the week before to claim the No. 17/17 spots. This week they have reached their second highest national ranking in program history with the No. 12 spot in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
 
PL PRESEASON POLL
The Colgate men's lacrosse team was picked to finish third in the 2012 Patriot League Preseason, while junior Peter Baum was selected as the PL Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.
 
The Raiders landed the third spot behind defending champion Bucknell and Army. The Bison were picked to win the title once again with 72 points, the maximum point tally possible, and 12 first-place votes while Army received 54 points and two first-place votes. Following Colgate, which had 52 points, were Lehigh (44), Navy (38), Lafayette (19) and Holy Cross (15).