BU Athletics

Men’s Lacrosse, Coming Off Best Season in History, Hosts Patriot League Playoffs This Weekend

Semifinal win Friday would send Terriers to their first-ever men’s lacrosse title game Sunday

Jake Cates (COM’22) was one of five Terriers named to the 2022 All-Patriot League First Team, with two others making the conference Second Team.

It’s a historic moment for BU men’s lacrosse, and the team’s players and coach are savoring it. This weekend, for the first time in nine years as a varsity program, the Terriers will host the Patriot League Lacrosse Tournament after capturing their first regular season title.

The team has already seen a record-setting spring, but head coach Ryan Polley and his 16th-ranked Terriers are gunning for more as they go into their semifinal bout with Lehigh on Friday at 4 pm.

“We’ve been in the playoffs five straight years now,” Polley says. “It’s been an unbelievable team effort all year, and I think the guys are all really excited.”

BU earned the regular season trophy and postseason home field advantage with a 7-1 record in Patriot League play, highlighted by a title-sealing win at Lehigh, the defending top seed, on April 23. Polley says results like that, with a 9-8 final score, prove the team’s “championship culture.”

“We’ve recruited players with a plan in mind that not only will they be great players on the field, but they’ll also be great players off the field,” the coach says, “and that they will buy into our systems and our cultures, and I think that’s come to fruition.”

This climb to first place came after BU was picked fifth out of nine teams in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. BU finished the regular season as the NCAA leader in caused turnovers per game (11.71), fourth nationally in most ground balls per game (37.29), and seventh nationally in lowest clearing percentage (.779), leading the conference in all three categories.

Cocaptain Matt Hilburn (Questrom’22) says BU’s rise is a point of pride for the team: “I think individually we have a lot of guys with chips on their shoulders. Those polls just added a lot more fuel to the fire, and as a group, we collectively decided that this year, we were going to prove a lot of people wrong.”

BU brought in its share of end-of-season honors, announced May 2. At the top, Polley claimed his second Patriot League Coach of the Year award. He credits his players for the award. “I would certainly say it’s a team honor. Obviously I’m humbled to get the award,” he says, “but I wouldn’t be in this position without the success of the team and all the hard work of the coaching staff.”

Among the student-athletes, Roy Meyer (Questrom’23) was named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year for forcing more turnovers (43) than any player in the country—and any Terrier in team history. Matt Garber (Questrom’22) won Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year after posting a league-high save percentage (.543) and the country’s 13th-best goals-against average (10.24).

Hilburn says these standout Terriers have been at the core of the team’s defensive effort all season. “I think that the defense builds off of Meyer’s very relaxed style and ‘next play’ mentality, and Garber has fed off of that, as well,” he says.

After not a single player was picked for the Preseason All-Patriot League Team, the Terriers totaled a program-record five All-Patriot League First Team members, the most of any school in the conference. In addition to Meyer and Garber, BU’s selections were Vince D’Alto (COM’23), team leader in goals (43) and points (70), Jake Cates (COM’22), who factored in with nearly three goals per game when healthy, and Patrick Morrison (CAS’23), a centerpiece of the BU defense.

BU was also well-represented on the All-Patriot League Second Team, by Timmy Ley (COM’22), who owns the NCAA’s longest active scoring streak, at 36 games, and Conor Calderone (CAS’23), the 12th-best face-off man in the nation, with a .573 win percentage. Still, Polley says, BU’s list could have been even longer.

“I want the whole team to feel good and be happy for those individuals, but to know that everybody had a huge part in this,” he says. “I think we have the best attack unit in the league. I was disappointed that [BU assist leader] Louis Perfetto (Questrom’23) didn’t get recognized. I think he had a great year.”

The coach says that with so many contributors, balance has been one of his team’s greatest strengths this season. “I think we can win in a variety of different ways,” he says. “I think when we’re at our best, we’re really winning the possession game. I think we’re efficient on offense, so the more possessions we get, the easier it is for us to score goals.”

Hilburn says another element in BU’s favor is home-field advantage. The Terriers won six games out of eight at Nickerson this season, outscoring opponents 120-89 in those games.

“We’re just ready to get after it and walk out on our field, be in our own locker room, have our own rituals, and just get to play,” he says. “We’ve had great crowds this year, it’s been really fun. I’m really hoping that we can get a lot of student involvement for this weekend.”

The last time the men’s lacrosse team reached the Patriot League semifinals was in 2019, when Hilburn and the rest of the Class of 2022 were freshmen. Three years later, with a pandemic in between, he hopes the senior class can leave the program on its highest peak yet.

“We’ve done so much and we’ve built it to where we want to get to,” Hilburn says. “This senior class has done everything in their power to get the program to the point it is now, and it would mean everything to see this group rejoice in its success.”

BU’s semifinal matchup with Lehigh is Friday, May 6, at 4 pm, and will be streamed on ESPN+ and covered live on Twitter @BUGameDay. The championship game will be held on Sunday, May 8, at noon. Fans can purchase tickets online for $8 per day or $12 for the entire tournament and BU students, faculty and staff are admitted free with a valid BU ID. Follow the Terriers on Twitter, @TerrierMLAX, and learn more about the team and the tournament on GoTerriers.com and PatriotLeague.org.