COMING UP: at Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League Championships (Missoula, Mont.) – Saturday vs. Central Washington-Southern Oregon winner, 10 a.m.; Sunday – PNCLL Championship, 11 a.m.
LIVE LINKS: Live Video from all games at the PNCLL Division II Championships will be available through the Montana Lacrosse
LiveStream Network.
OFF TO THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT: For the fifth-straight season, the Coyotes have qualified for the PNCLL Division II Championships, hosted by the University of Montana at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. C of I is the top seed from the Southern Division – joined by Western Oregon and Southern Oregon – while host Montana is the top seed in the North Division, with Central Washington and Gonzaga also in the event.
WHAT'S AT STAKE: The winner of the 3-day tournament will earn an automatic bid to the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division II National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 6-11. Last season, the Yotes defeated Montana, 11-10 in overtime, to win the league title.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: C of I is making their sixth trip to the playoffs and their fifth postseason appearance in a row. The Yotes qualified for the quarterfinals of both the 2010 and 2015 PNCLL Tournaments – dropping games to Whitman and Western Washington, while the 2015 team advanced to the semifinals, before losing to Portland. C of I has reached the PNCLL championship game each of the last two seasons – losing to Montana, 12-9, in 2017 and defeating Montana, 11-10, in 2018 – before going 1-1 at the MCLA Division II National Championships. The Coyotes are a combined 5-5 all-time in playoff games.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: The Yotes have a bye into the semifinals, where they will meet the winner of Friday's quarterfinal between Central Washington and Southern Oregon. The Wildcats (6-2) take a 3-game win streak to Missoula on the strength of attackman Keegan Sullivan (22 goals, 10 assists) and goalie Chiem Saeteurn (.459 save pct.). The Raiders (5-4) have lost 4-of-5, including a 30-4 setback in Ashland to the Yotes, but feature attackman Connor Mason (34 goals, 9 assists). If C of I wins, they'll face one of three teams – Montana, Western Oregon or Gonzaga – three teams the Yotes have defeated this year. The Grizzlies (8-5) are a dangerous bunch, winning seven of their final eight matches – thanks to attackmen Aidan Larsen (29 goals, 13 assists) and James Pierce (23 goals, 27 assists) – with goalie Andrew Moesel stopping nearly 63-percent of opponent shots. The Wolves (8-3) defeated SOU to earn the No. 2 seed from the South, led by the PNCLL's leading goal scorer Jonathan Williams (58 goals, 9 assists). The Bulldogs (3-6) earned the North No. 3 seed with a win over Western Washington, with midfielder Rath Jessen (16 goals, 11 assists) the Zags top scorer.
NATIONAL POLL: C of I enters the weekend ranked No. 6 in the MCLA Division II Top-25, the second-straight week at No. 6 – the highest poll position in program history. Minnesota Duluth is the unanimous No. 1 team, followed by Grand Valley State, Kennesaw State, Dayton and St. Thomas. Four other Coyote opponents are in the Top-25 – No. 13 Montana, No. 16 UC-Santa Cruz, No. 22 Utah State and No. 25 Western Oregon. C of I is only one of four remaining unbeaten teams in the MCLA and the lone Division II unbeaten (Cal, Georgia Tech and New Hampshire are undefeated in the MCLA Division I).
WIN STREAKS: C of I extended their regular-season PNCLL win streak to 15 in a row – dating back to a 2016 loss at Western Oregon – with the Yotes running their home win streak to 17 in a row, completing a perfect 7-0 mark at Simplot Stadium in 2019. The 2019 team joins the 2017 squad as the only C of I teams to complete a regular-season unbeaten.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: Two Coyote players rank among the Top-10 in the MCLA stats category – as
Casey Davies leads the nation in points per game (9.0), ranking No. 2 in assists (42) and No. 4 in goals scored (48).
Hank Ontiveros leads the MCLA in face-off percentage (.939) – winning 172-of-183 draws. As a team, the Yotes lead the MCLA Division II in goals scored (229) and goals per game (22.9) – with only two MCLA Division I teams (Liberty and Georgia Tech) scoring more goals.
RECORD BOOK: With 42 assists on the year,
Casey Davies has already surpassed the single-season assist mark of 39, set by
Nich Guzzetti in 2018, with his 90 points for the season ranked No. 2 and his 48 goals the No. 4 mark by a Coyote.
Hank Ontiveros is just eight ground ball recoveries away from surpassing
Cory Brady's 2018 season record of 122, while
Ryan Henning ranks No. 9 in a season for goals scored with 42.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Yotes will learn their fate for the MCLA Division II National Championships on Monday, with the tournament set to start on May 6 in Salt Lake City.
