Setting the Stage
• Inside the Games: The Navy men's lacrosse team (0-0, 0-0 Patriot League) opens its 116th year of competition when the Mids play host to Mount St. Mary's (0-0, 0-0 MAAC) on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Faceoff is slated for 12:00 pm. Navy is led by fourth-year head coach Joe Amplo, who guided the Mids to a 9-6 record a year ago, while the Mountaineers are under the direction of Tom Gravante who is in his 29th year at Mount St. Mary's. Saturday's contest marks the 10th meeting (Navy, 8-1) in a series that dates back to 1998.
• 24 hours after its opener, Navy will play host to Queens University of Charlotte (0-0, 0-0 ASUN) in a 12-noon tilt. Led by fifth-year head coach Chris Panos, Queens is in its first year competing at the Division I level after spending the last 19 years (2004) among the Division II ranks.  
• Follow the Action: Both contests will be streamed via ESPN+ (subscription based) and will also be carried live on 1430 AM / 99.9 FM WNAV with Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller on the call. Radio coverage begins at 11:45 am with the Navy Lacrosse Pregame Show. Live stats will also be available on NavySports.com(.)

Game Day Storylines
• Mids Picked Third: Navy has been picked to finish third in the 2023 Patriot League Preseason Poll. Defending Patriot League Champion Boston University secured 15 of the 18 first-place votes to top the poll for the first time in league history. It's the first time since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2014 that the Greyhounds were not the preseason favorite. Loyola was selected to finish second, followed by Navy, Army, Lehigh, Bucknell, Colgate, 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 for a second-consecutive year.
• First-Time Foes: One of the oldest programs in the sport's history, Navy enters its 116th season having played 49 of the other 74 Division I programs. Navy, however, will add two teams to that list this spring when it faces Queens (Feb. 5) and Villanova (March 21). The other 23 teams Navy has not played are Albany, Bellarmine, Binghamton, Bryant, Cleveland State, Denver, Hampton, Lindenwood, LIU, Marquette, UMass-Lowell, Merrimack, Michigan, Monmouth, NJIT, Notre Dame, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Siena, St. Bonaventure, St. John's, Utah and Wagner.
• 29 Games and Counting: Heading into the opener, All-American Patrick Skalniak (Sr / M) owns a 29-game point-scoring streak. He has amassed 82 points on 45 goals and 37 assists during the streak which dates back to his first-collegiate game on Feb. 7, 2020, against Manhattan.
• The Race to 100: Co-captain Patrick Skalniak (Sr / M) is looking to become just the 37th player in program history to reach the 100-point career scoring milestone. Skalniak heads into his senior campaign with 82-career points, having produced 45 goals and 37 assists. Among the list of Navy's 100-point scorers, 16 players have added their names to the list in the last 25 years, including Christian Daniel (122) in 2021, Greyson Torain (132) in 2019 and Ryan Wade (119) in 2019. More than 40 years after graduating, Jeff Long remains the Mids' all-time leading scorer with 233 points (84-149).

Scouting Mount St. Mary's
• Tom Gravante will usher in his 29th season as the head coach at Mount St. Mary's when he leads the Mount against the Mids Saturday in Annapolis.
• The Mount posted a 5-10 record a year ago, including a 2-5 mark in the Northeast Conference. After earning wins in 3 of its first 5 contests, Mount St. Mary's won just 2 of their last 10 games.
• Mount St. Mary's will play in the 10-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Canisius, LIU, Manhattan, Marist, Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Siena, VMI, Wagner) this spring after the Northeast Conference dissolved.
• The Mount returns 3 of their top 6 point producers from a year ago, including Jared McMahon (A / Gr) who paced the team with 32 points (22-10), while Jake Krieger (M / Gr) had 24 points (13-11). Cormac Giblin (A / Sr), meanwhile, had 15 points (12-3).
• The Mount, however, will need to replace the team's second and third-leading goal scorers in Connor McMahon (16-4=20) and Brendan Lantieri (15-6=21) .
• Junior Griffin McGinley returns in goal where he played in 11 of the 15 contests. He recorded a 12.94 GAA and a 48.3 save percentage. McGinley made 21 saves in last year's victory over the Midshipmen.
• Conor Beals took 70 percent of the team's draws a year ago, winning 47.2 percent (120-254) while leading the team with 54 ground balls.

Navy vs. Mount St. Mary's - The Series
• Saturday's contest between Navy and Mount St. Mary's marks the 10th game in a series that began in 1998. The Mids have dominated the series, 8-1.
• The inaugural meeting between the two programs was held April 14, 1998 in Annapolis. Navy led 3-1 after the opening quarter, but broke free of the Mount by outscoring them 7-1 in the second quarter and held a comfortable 10-2 lead at the half. The second half was even between the two teams as the Mids doubled up the Mount for a 16-8 win.
• That inaugural game featured starting defenseman Chad Donnelly who went on to garner All-America recognition in 1998, '99 and '00. Currently a Captain in the Navy, Donnelly is stationed at the Naval Academy where he is a Battalion Officer and serves as an officer representative with the men's lacrosse program.
• This will be the seventh game in the series that has been staged in Annapolis with the Mids earning wins in 1998 (16-8), 1999 (11-7), 2001 (16-3), 2008 (12-5) and 2021 (8-5). The Mountaineers won their first game in the series a year ago (11-9) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• Navy has held Mount St. Mary's to single digits in 8 of their 9 meetings, outscoring the Mount 101-51.
• This will be the third-consecutive year Navy has played Mount St. Mary's in its opener. The two teams met on Feb. 20, 2021, with Navy holding off a late rally by the Mount for an 8-5 victory. Last year, Mount St. Mary's used a 5-1 run in the third quarter to take the lead for good and earn their first win in the series behind an 11-9 victory.

Scouting Queens
• After 19 years as a Division II member, Queens University of Charlotte enters its first season competing at the Division I level when it opens the 2023 campaign at Navy.
• The Royals have twice earned DII NCAA Championship berths (2014, '19), while claiming South Atlantic Conference regular-season titles in 2014 and '15 and the tournament crown in 2014.
• Fifth-year head coach Chris Panos led the Royals to a 12-5  record a year ago that included an appearance in the South Atlantic Conference Championship Game against Limestone.
• Queens was ranked among the NCAA's top 5 (74 teams) in seven statistical categories including assists (#2 / 178), assists per game (#2 / 10.47), extra-man offense (#3 / 47.9), points per game (#3 / 28.47), scoring offense (#2 / 16.00), points (#5 / 450) and shot percentage (#5 / 35.4).
• Queens will look to rebuild on the offensive end of the field, as four of the team's top-five scorers graduated, including Honorable Mention All-American Kealan Pilon who paced the team in points (95), goals (56) and assists (39). Pilon was #12 in Div. II in goals per game (3.29) and #3 in points per game (5.59).
• Jack Royer (So / A) produced 54 points (31-23) a year ago and was the team's third-leading scorer. Also returning are Adam Barry (Gr / M) who had 32 points (19-13) and Hunter Meyer (So / M) who produced 28 points (20-8).
• William Powley (Sr) resumes his post in goal where last year he owned a 10.61 GAA and a 52.0 save percentage in 16 contests.
• The Royals also return their top faceoff man in Alex Alonso (Gr). Alonso won 60.1 percent of his draws (224-373) and paced the team with 118 ground balls. He stook #19 in Div. II in faceoff winning percentage and 17th in ground balls per game (6.94).
• All-conference defenseman Will McNichols (Jr) also returns after recording 10 caused turnovers and grabbing 30 ground balls in 2022.

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

Program Ties
• Rivals on the playing field, Navy's Joe Amplo and Queens' Chris Panos are also longtime acquaintances.
• Both men attended Sachem High School in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y. before becoming teammates at Hofstra.
• Amplo played at Hofstra from 1996-99, while Panos was a member of the team from 1993-96. The two were roommates Amplo's freshman year which was Panos' senior year.
• Additionally, Navy volunteer assistant coach Blake Miller was a classmate of Panos' at Hofstra. The two played together for two seasons (1995-96) and were on the same attack line. The two went on to play together professionally with the Anaheim Storm.
• While their playing careers did not cross at Hofstra, they did in 2011 when current Navy assistant coach John Orsen and Panos were members of the United States National Indoor Team. Orsen and Panos represented the United States at the 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in Prague, Czech Republic where the U.S. would win the bronze.

Start Me Up
• Navy owns a 96-18-1 record in season openers, including an 81-11-1 mark when opening at home.
• Fourth-year Navy head coach Joe Amplo is 2-1 at Navy in home openers.
• This is the fifth year in a row Navy has opened its season at home, earning wins over Vermont (13-8) in 2019, Manhattan (9-4) in 2020 and Mount St. Mary's (8-5) in 2021. The Mids dropped an 11-9 decision to Mount St. Mary's in last spring's opener.
• Navy has played 17 of their last 22 openers at home. The Mids played their 2004, '05, '06, '17 and '18 openers on the road.
• In what is Navy's 116th season, this marks the 31st 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.
• Saturday's game matches the earliest start in program history. The Mids opened their 2018 campaign at Jacksonville on Feb. 4 in a game the Dolphins would win 12-7.
• This will mark the earliest game played at home. The earliest previously played home game was last year's opener against Mount St. Mary's that was played on Feb. 5.

Welcome Back
• Navy returns 9 of its 10 starters off last year's team.
• Offensively, Navy returns 63.4 percent of its goal scoring, 44.7 percent of its assist production and 56.6 percent of its points. Five of Navy's top 6 scorers return, including All-American midfielder Patrick Skalniak who paced the Mids with 48 points on 28 goals and 20 assists.
• Defensively, Navy finished 2022 ranked #12 nationally and #2 in the Patriot League, holding opponents to 10.13 goals per game ... the Mids held 6 of their 15 opponents to single digits in the spring, including 2 of the last 4.
• Navy's returning starters include attackmen Xavier Arline (Jr) and Henry Tolker (So), midfielders Max Hewitt (Jr), Patrick Skalniak (Sr) and Dane Swanson (Jr), close defensemen Jackson Bonitz (Jr), Kyle Fairbanks (Sr) and Nick LiCalzi (Jr) and goalkeeper Pat Ryan (Sr).
• 2022 co-captain Nick Cole started every game over his career and was tied with Swanson as the Mids' second-leading scorer with 38 points on 17 goals and 21 assists.
• Other key contributors Navy lost include Jack Sweeney (A / 9-1=10), Augie Fratt (DM / 34GB, 12CT), Ryan Chase (DM / 17GB, 2CT) and Jacob Jarosz (FO / 53-110, 48.2%).

Playing Back to Back
• This weekend will mark just the third time Navy has played 2 games in a 48-hour span and the first time since 1975.
• Navy met Maryland in the 1975 National Championship Game on May 31 (L, 20-13) in Baltimore before facing archrival Army the following day (W, 10-5) in Annapolis.
• In 1945, Navy played 2 games on the same day. Navy defeated Cornell 20-1 on May 5 and followed with a 14-0 rout against Dartmouth later that day.

It's a First
• There are 4 current programs who played Navy in their first season as a Div. I program - Maryland (4-12-24 / Maryland 5-3) and Penn (5-3-24 / Navy 16-1), Lafayette (4-17-26 / Navy 23-0) and Boston U. (3-29-14 / Navy 13-7).
• Not only will Queens be added to the list, it will mark the first time Navy has served as a first-year program's inaugural game.