Game Day Storylines
• Scene Setter: The Navy men's lacrosse team (0-0, 0-0 Patriot League) opens its 112th season of competition when the Mids play host to Vermont (1-0, 0-0 America East) on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.  Faceoff is slated for 12:00 PM.
• Follow the Action: The Navy-Vermont contest will be carried live by 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Joe Miller handling the call. Coverage begins with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show at 11:45 am. The game will also be streamed online for FREE on Navy's web site or via PatriotLeague.TV, while live stats will be available at NavyStats.com.
• Mids Picked Third: Navy, who shared the Patriot League regular-season title a year ago with Loyola, has been picked to finish third in the league behind defending Patriot League Tournament Champion Loyola and Lehigh. Senior midfielders Greyson Torain and Ryan Wade were also named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team.
• Stat Tracker: Heading into the season, Navy senior midfielder Ryan Wade owns the nation's 11th-longest scoring streak with a goal or an assist in each of the last 24  contests. He has produced 58 points on 17 goals and 41 assists during the streak.
• The Race to 100: Senior Greyson Torain is just 5 points shy (59-36=95) of becoming the 34th player in Navy's 112-year history to record 100 career points. Classmate Ryan Wade, who has topped 30 points in each of the last two seasons, needs 29 points (22-49=71) to add his name to that list.
• 30-Point Club: Navy returns three of its top four scorers from 2018, all 30-point scorers - Greyson Torain 33 pts, Ryan Wade 33, Christian Daniel 31. Attackman Jack Ray graduated in May after pitching in 33 points.
• New Year, New Faces: Navy graduated 15 players off last year's team, including 5 starters (Hiram Carter, Dave Little, Jack Ray, Casey Rees, Michael Strack). This spring, a crop of 17 freshmen have joined the program and several are expected to see playing time early on, including attackmen Nick Cole and Jack Sweeney, midfielder Ryan Chase, long-stick midfielders Dan Jordon and Jimmy Rubino and faceoff specialists Nick Barry, Joe Miller and Jacob Jarosz.
• Defensive Debut: Navy will have four new starters among its defensive lineup on Saturday. Sophomores Nick Franchuk and Jacob Mandish are expected to start at close defense, while sophomore Tim Griffin and junior Brad Alexander will share the short-stick defensive midfield slot. Returning to the lineup are All-Patriot League goalkeeper Ryan Kern, sophomore LSM Jeff Durden and sophomore close defenseman Andrew McKenna.

Scouting the Catamounts
• Entering his third season at the helm of the Vermont program is Chris Feifs who guided the Catamounts to one of the biggest turnarounds in lacrosse a year ago. In his first season, Vermont posted a 5-8 record before taking the national scene by surprise a year ago with a 12-4 mark and a third-place finish in the America East.
• Among its accomplishments a year ago, the team ranked sixth in the NCAA in scoring defense, allowing just 8.06 goals per game. It was the first Cat team to post 12 wins in a single season, the first team to beat 10 Division I opponents in a season and the first UVM team to remain nationally ranked for more than three weeks. The 2018 Cats featured a pair of All-Americans in 2018 graduate Ian MacKay and junior keeper Nick Washuta - doubling the program's all-time All-Americans.
• Vermont posted a 21-6 victory over the newest DI lacrosse program Utah a week ago Friday in what not only was the Cats' opener, but the first game of the season in men's lacrosse.
• While Ian McKay has graduated, Vermont returns its next five scorers including junior attackman Ben French who put up 6 points on 4 goals and 2 assists against Utah. Senior attackman Dawes Milching also pitched in a 6-point performance against the Utes with 2 goals and 4 assists.
• Returning All-American goalkeeper Nick Washuta made 9 saves and gave up 6 goals in 58 minutes of play against Utah. He is coming off a season that saw him post a 7.72 goals-against average and 60.9 save percentage over 16 games.

Navy vs. Vermont - The Series
• Saturday's contest marks the first meeting between the two programs.
• Vermont has been a Div. I program since 1978 and joined the America East in 1996.
• While this will be the first meeting between the two programs, Navy head coach Rick Sowell has coached against the Catamounts when he was at the helm of Stony Brook (6-0) and Dartmouth (3-1). The last time he faced Vermont was on April 30, 2011, directing Stony Brook to a 12-9 victory.

For Openers
• Navy owns a 93-17-1 record in season openers, including a 78-10-1 mark when opening at home.
• The Midshipmen had won 15 consecutive openers dating back to a 16-2 win over Saint Joseph's in 2002 before dropping back-to-back openers to Johns Hopkins in 2017 (15-8) and Jacksonville in 2018 (12-7). Both of those openers were played on the road.
• The Mids outscored their foes 209-63 (13.9-4.2) during that stretch of 15 wins from 2002-2016.  
• In what is Navy's 112th season, this marks the 27th time Navy has opened its season in the month of February. The first time Navy played a game in the month of February was Feb. 29, 1992, when the Mids opened their season at #18 Penn State in a 16-9 losing effort. It's just the ninth time Navy has opened its season before Feb. 10 and 12th straight year it has opened prior to Feb. 15.
• The Mids have played 13 of their last 18 openers at home. Navy played its 2004, '05, '06, '17 and '18 openers on the road.