DANBURY, Conn. --- The Moravian College men's lacrosse team, playing its first varsity season since 2010, was awarded the program's first-ever postseason berth Monday as the Greyhounds were seeded sixth in the 2016 ECAC Division III Mid-Atlantic Championship Tournament, and the Hounds will travel to third seed Lebanon Valley College for a First Round match on Wednesday, May 11 at 4:00 p.m.
In addition to the Blue and Grey earning their first postseason appearance, the squad registered the first 10-win campaign in program history with a 10-5 mark during the regular season under Head Coach Dave Carty, who is in his 14th year as a collegiate head coach. Moravian previously had men's lacrosse from 2004 through 2010; however, the program spent the next five years as a club sport before returning to varsity status this spring.
Moravian's match at Lebanon Valley on Wednesday will be the first between the schools in men's lacrosse with the Flying Dutchmen adding the sport after the Greyhounds left the Middle Atlantic Conference and joined the Landmark Conference in 2007-08. The winner of the first round match will play second seed Stockton University in a semifinal match on Saturday, May 14 at 4:00 p.m. hosted by top seed Swarthmore College. Both Stockton and Swarthmore received byes in the first round, and the host Garnet will play the winner of Wednesday's other First Round match between Curry College and Johnson & Wales University. The championship match is set for Sunday, May 15.
The Greyhounds have been led in scoring so far this season by freshman attack Mark Laratta, who has a school record 39 goals to go with nine assists for 48 points, and Laratta has added 37 ground balls and six caused turnovers. Freshman attack James Carroll has netted 38 goals and added seven assists for 45 points, and he also has 26 ground balls and seven caused turnovers while scoring a team-high seven man-up goals. Both Laratta and Carroll have netted two goals while Moravian has been a man-down.
Freshman midfielder Christopher Klodowski has contributed 20 goals, 16 assists, 21 ground balls and nine caused turnovers while freshman midfielder Alec Oriolo has 17 goals, 16 assists, 22 ground balls and eight caused turnovers. Senior midfielder Dave Fiumara has 21 goals, seven assists, 27 ground balls and three caused turnovers this spring for Moravian while freshman attack Jack Gozzard has added 13 goals, 10 assists and 25 ground balls. Freshman midfielder Dominick Gurreri has netted six goals to go with six assists and nine ground balls.
Freshman goalie Kurt Dick has paced the Moravian defense by posing an 8.90 goals-against average to go with 156 saves, 28 ground balls and three caused turnovers in 843 minutes of action. Junior goalie Michael Smith has 11 saves and two ground balls in 30 minutes while freshman Trevor Bickel has added seven saves in 34 minutes in the cage.
Freshman defender John Polich leads the Greyhounds with 60 ground balls to go with 21 caused turnovers, a goal, four assists and six face-off wins while junior defender Ed Delia has 57 ground balls, a team-high 33 caused turnovers, an assist and 2-of-3 face-off wins. Freshman defender Brian Biase has 21 ground balls and 21 caused turnovers on the season while freshman defender Anthony Pontone has 14 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers and freshman defender Zach Clifton has 11 ground balls.
Freshman midfielder Hayden DuPont is 91-of-177 on face-offs with 50 ground balls, seven caused turnovers and three assists while freshman midfielder Rick Guerra is 75-of-132 on face-offs with 31 grounds balls and a pair of assists. Freshman midfielder Jake Burcaw has contributed 23 grounds balls, nine caused turnovers, a goal and an assist while freshman midfielder AJ Cioffi has a goal, four assists and five ground balls.
Junior attack Alex Hughes and senior midfielder Pat Moscatello each have one goal this season with Hughes adding seven ground balls and three caused turnovers while freshman midfielder Robert Gellatly as one assist. Freshman defender Nicholas Kopko has contributed six ground balls on the year while junior defender Andrew Cruz has three caused turnovers. Sophomore defender Michael Debowski and junior midfielder Chris Mayer have also contributed this season.
