Game Day Storylines
• Inside the Game: Navy (0-1, 0-0 Patriot League) will look to bounce back from its season-opening loss to Mount St. Mary's a week ago when the Mids play host to Mercer (1-1, 0-0 SoCon) on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm. Navy is led by third-year head coach Joe Amplo, who owns a 9-6 record at the helm of the Navy program, while the Bears are under the direction of Chad Surman who is in his second season as Mercer's head coach. Saturday's contest marks the inaugural meeting between the two programs.
• Follow the Action: The Navy-Mercer contest will be streamed via ESPN+ (subscription based) with Joe Miller and Phil Bergman on the call. Live stats will also be available on NavySports.com(.) The game will be no radio coverage for this game, as 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV will broadcast the Army-Navy women's (11:00 am) and men's (1:30 pm) basketball doubleheader at West Point with Pete Medhurst calling the action.
• Mids Picked Fourth: Navy has been picked to finish fourth in the 2022 Patriot League Preseason Poll. Loyola, who received 14 of the 18 first-place votes, is the preseason favorite for a ninth-consecutive year, followed by Lehigh, Army, Navy, Boston U., Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette and Holy Cross. Navy's Patrick Skalniak (Jr / M) and Jackson Bonitz (So / D) were also named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team.
• Pleased to Meet You: When head coach Joe Amplo took over the Navy program in 2020, Navy had played 45 of the other 74 DI schools (now 72) who have men's lacrosse programs. Navy added three names to the list in 2020, facing Manhattan (W, 9-4), Furman (W, 19-3) and Richmond (L, 9-12). The Mids have scheduled two additional first-time opponents for this spring - Mercer (Feb. 12) and High Point (Feb. 26). The teams Navy has yet to play (23) are Albany, Bellarmine, Binghamton, Bryant, Cleveland State, Denver, Hampton, LIU, Marquette, UMass-Lowell, Merrimack, Michigan, Monmouth, NJIT, Notre Dame, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, St. Bonaventure, St. John's, Siena, Utah, Villanova and Wagner.
• Goalkeeper Shuffle: Navy has had 3 different starting goalies in each of Joe Amplo's three seasons as head coach. Ryan Kern was a four-year starter for the Mids, making his final start in Amplo's first season (2020) that was cut short due to COVID-19. Last season, Spencer Rees garnered All-America and Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year honors as a senior and a first-time starter. This season, junior Pat Ryan is between the pipes and registered 16 stops in his first-collegiate start.
• It's a First: Freshman attackman Henry Tolker made his first-collegiate start, scored his first-collegiate goal and scored Navy's first goal of the 2022 campaign last Saturday against Mount St. Mary's. Also making their first-collegiate start were defensemen Nick LiCalzi and Kyle Fairbanks, along with goalkeeper Pat Ryan. Making their first-collegiate appearances were freshmen Bobby Kittelberger and Jack Norton, along with sophomore Keegan Houser.

Scouting Mercer
• In his second season leading the Mercer program, head coach Chad Surman has led the Bears to a 1-1 record in 2022.
• Mercer outscored Bellarmine 5-1 in the second half of its game and used a 5-0 run in the third frame to earn the 9-4 come-from-behind victory.
• Bucknell, meanwhile, outscored Mercer by one in both the first and second halves to edge the Bears 16-14.
• Senior attackman Sean Goldsmith is atop the scoring leader board for the Bears with 9 points on 6 goals and 3 assists. After scoring a pair of goals against Bellarmine, Goldsmith put together a 4-goal, 3-assist effort against Bucknell. Goldsmith was the team's leading scorer a year ago with 28 points on 18 goals and 10 assists.
• Junior attackman Carl Klepper has amassed 8 points on 5 goals and 3 assists, while second-year midfielder Taylor Dooley has tallied 7 points on 5 goals and 2 assists. Klepper had 4 goals and an assist against Bucknell and Dooley had 3 goals and an assist against the Bison. Dooley was the team's second-leading scorer last season with 25 points on 17 goals and 8 assists.
• Junior Colin Kelley is a third-year starter in goal where he has given up 20 goals (10.00 GAA) and made 19 saves (48.7) this season.
• Faceoff specialist Ashton Wood returns for his senior season after posting a 62.9 winning percentage a year ago. He took 307 of the team's 345 draws (193-307) and went on to score 5 goals and add 3 assists. In 2 games this season, he has won 31 of the 51 draws (60.8) and has grabbed 19 ground balls.

Navy vs. Mercer - The Series
• Saturday's contest marks the first meeting between the two programs.