2019 Navy Men's Lacrosse Schedule: HTML / PDF
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  Eighth-year Navy men's lacrosse coach Rick Sowell announced the Mids' 2019 schedule on Thursday which features games against six programs who appear in the Inside Lacrosse Faceoff Yearbook top 25 preseason rankings, including five who will play the Mids at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium this spring.  

A year ago, Navy played seven games on the road, including five of its first six contests. This season's schedule features nine home games, the most regular-season home appearances by the Mids since 1971, including five nonconference matchups.

The first five games of the season will be played at home beginning with the Feb. 9 opener (12:00 pm) against Vermont. The Catamounts, who are ranked 24th in the preseason rankings, put together a 12-4 record a year ago that featured an appearance in the America East Championship Game against 2018 NCAA semifinalist Albany. Although it marks the inaugural meeting between the Mids and Catamounts, Sowell is no stranger to the Vermont program. He has coached against Vermont on 10 previous occasions as the head coach at Stony Brook (6-0) and Dartmouth (3-1).

Meeting for the second straight year in Annapolis, Navy and UMBC will square off under the lights on Feb. 15 (7:00 pm). The Mids captured a 7-5 victory over the Retrievers a year ago to push their series advantage to 23-4.

A week later (Feb. 23), 2018 NCAA semifinalist Maryland will make the short trip to Annapolis where the two programs will meet for the 94th time. The two schools have battled one another in each of the last 73 years in what is the second-longest continuous series Navy has with another team (Army, 86 consecutive years). The Feb. 23 contest marks just the sixth time (March 25, 1972 / Feb. 14, 2015 / Feb. 13, 2016 / Feb. 10, 2017 / Feb. 10, 2018) Navy and Maryland have met prior to the month of April. The Terps, one of two schools Navy will face this season ranked among the nation's top five, enter the season ranked No. 3.

The Midshipmen will begin their quest for a ninth Patriot League crown when they open conference play on March 2 (3:00 pm) at home against Bucknell. It will be the eighth time in the program's 16 years as a member of the Patriot League that Navy will open conference action against the Bison. Meanwhile, it marks just the fourth time Navy will start league play at home (Home 0-3 / Road 5-6 / Neutral 1-0). Winners of each of the last three meetings in the series, the Mids own a 10-8 series advantage over Bucknell, including a 5-3 mark in games played in Annapolis.

Navy will close out its home stretch on March 5 (4:00 pm) when it meets 14th-ranked Princeton in what will be the first game between the two programs since the Mids defeated the Tigers, 8-7, in the 2004 NCAA Tournament Semifinals. The Tuesday afternoon contest will be the 56th meeting between the two in a series Navy leads, 39-15-1. The teams met for the first time in 1925 and every year but three from 1934-88, but their last regular season meeting was in 1990. The Tigers, who put together an 8-5 record a year ago, enter the 2019 season with the longest winning streak in Division I after winning its final five games a year ago while tying for third place in the Ivy League.

The Mids will play four of their next five games on the road, including making their first road trip of the season on March 9 (12:00 pm) when they travel to Easton, Pa. to face Lafayette who is under the direction of first-year head coach Pat Myers. The Mids lead the all-time series against the Leopards, 18-2.  The following week (March 16), the Mids will make the 30-minute drive to Baltimore to face defending Patriot League Tournament champion Loyola, who enters the spring ranked No. 4. Four of the last seven games between Navy and Loyola have been one-goal decisions.

Navy returns home on March 23 (12:00 pm) to play host to the 13th-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks. With their 10-7 regular-season victory over Lehigh a year ago, Navy pushed its winning streak in the series to four in a row. The Mountain Hawks, however, dealt the Mids a tough blow in the Patriot League Tournament Semifinals last April, as the Mids bowed out in overtime, 10-9. Navy owns a 32-7 series advantage, including a 23-2 mark in games played in Annapolis.

The Mids will have their two longest road trips of the year on back-to-back weekends, first playing at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. on March 30 (12:00 pm) followed by an April 6 (2:00 pm) meeting against Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y. The Mids own a 14-2 series advantage against Holy Cross and a 14-7 lead over the Raiders of Colgate.

Navy will play its final three regular-season games at home, beginning with one of the sport's longest and most cherished rivalries, the Army-Navy game. The two programs will meet in Annapolis on April 13 (3:30 pm) with CBS Sports Network televising the 100th meeting between Army and Navy. The Mids own a 61-35-3 series advantage, including wins in each of the last four Star Games.  More than 15,000 fans converged upon Michie Stadium a year ago to see Navy capture a 9-8 victory over the Black Knights while also securing a share of the Patriot League regular-season title for the eighth time in program history.

The Mids will step away from conference play a final time when they play host to 11th-ranked Syracuse on April 20 (5:00 pm). CBS Sports Network will televise the game live from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The storybook ending to last year's game made up for the near 15-year gap gap in the series. Senior faceoff specialist Joe Varello netted the game-winner with two-tenths of a second left in the game to lead Navy to a 13-12 victory over No. 9 Syracuse at the storied Carrier Dome. The Mids scored two goals in the final minute to earn the program's first win in the series since March 20, 1982 (W, 12-11). While Syracuse has played a number of times at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in the NCAA Quarterfinals, it will be the first time the Orange have played the Mids in Annapolis since 1982.

Navy will close out the regular season on April 26 (4:00 pm) when it plays host to Boston University. In each of the previous three seasons, the two met to open the Patriot League slate, but this season the game was pushed to the end of the year to accommodate the change in date for the Patriot League Tournament. A nearly dead-even series has Navy up a game (3-2) and each of the last three contests have been decided by two goals or less.

The Patriot League Tournament will again feature six teams with the top two seeds receiving a bye, while quarterfinal contests will be played between the 3-6 and 4-5 seeds on Tuesday, April 30.  The Patriot League semifinals will be played on Friday, May 3 at the site of the top seed with the championship slated for Sunday, May 5. CBS Sports Network will air both semifinal games (5:00 / 8:00 pm), as well as the championship game (12:00 pm).

Single-game tickets for Navy home lacrosse games are on sale now and may be purchased by stopping by the Navy Ticket Office at Ricketts Hall, by calling 1-800-US4-NAVY, via the internet at www.navysports.com or at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on game day. Tickets prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students, while groups of 20 or more will be offered discounted $5 (adults) and $3 tickets (youth). Group tickets must be purchased in advance by contacting Jordan Albright at 410-293-8791 / e-mail: albright@usna.edu or Kristin Toler at 410-293-8743 / e-mail: toler@usna.edu.   


### Go Navy ###