In a season of incredible highs and devastating lows, Army Men’s Lacrosse beat Patriot League upstart Bucknell decisively last week to move into a three-way tie for second place in the League’s overall standings. Incredibly, the Men still control their own destiny heading into the Patriot League Tournament despite enduring a three-game slide in March. If the Black Knights can beat Navy and top-ranked Loyola over the next two weeks, they should enter the tournament with a first-round bye. They might even host.
But first, they must BEAT NAVY!
Some Need to Know info before Saturday's service academy matchup!
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 8, 2026
Fans are encouraged to arrive early on gameday!#FamilyToughnessTradition pic.twitter.com/4pzWZO6eeq
Navy Squids
The Mids come into this weekend’s contest with a 7-4 record overall, 3-2 in the Patriot League. They beat current #11 Penn State, 12-11, in late February but dropped games at Towson, at Johns Hopkins, at Boston University, and most recently at home to Colgate in double-overtime. They have a good team this year, especially in the faceoff “X”, and have received votes in the various national polls throughout the season, but with the exception of that Penn State game, they have yet to show out against nationally ranked competition.
Junior FOGO Zach Hayashi is arguably Navy’s best player and perhaps the best faceoff man in the Patriot League as well. He’s won 86/156 faceoffs this season (55.1%) and scored two goals. This gives the Mids a decided possession advantage and could prove particularly problematic for the Black Knights given that Army’s FOGO sits at just 46.4% this season. The Black Knights did a nice job controlling possession this past week against Bucknell despite struggling at the faceoff “X”, and they must do the same again this week if they want to beat the Squids.
Army will also need to watch out for firstie A Mac Haley, who won Patriot League Player of the Week honors this past weekend for his game against Holy Cross. Haley scored 3 goals and added 5 assists in Navy’s 20-13 win. On the season, he has 26 goals and 20 assists overall. Firstie Race Ripley and sophomore Alec Gregorek round out the Mids’ attack. Gregorek scored 7 goals and added 2 assists in Navy’s recent loss to Colgate while Ripley had a goal and 4 assists. On the season, Gregorek has a whopping 41 points with 34 total goals plus 7 assists, so between him and Haley, that’s some serious offensive firepower.
"That's all lacrosse is. Playing with confidence."
— Navy Athletics (@NavyAthletics) April 5, 2026
William Goers returned from a two-game absence to total a career-high seven points in @NavyMLax's 20-13 win over Holy Cross.
The sophomore shares his thoughts on today's game & facing Army next weekend.#GoNavy | #BATL pic.twitter.com/v5wq4a1uiN
Just from the stats, Navy’s defense appears talented but inconsistent. Firstie G Dan Daly averages almost 11 saves/game and 50.7% saves overall. That’s not bad, but the Mids have still given up double-digit goals eight times this season, including *13* to bottom-feeder Holy Cross. Perhaps that owes more to playing their backups in a game they were winning, but it’s still a sharp contrast to the Black Knights, who’ve given up 10 or more goals just five total times this year.
One specific stat shows this disparity clearly. Army has 100 caused turnovers this season. Boston University has 125. Navy has just 77, which ranks last in the Patriot League. However, the Mids also score a lot more goals/game (13.8) than the Black Knights (12.3). Surprisingly, Navy also averages a lot more assists/game (8.3) than Army (6.8), especially since Army’s offensive ball movement is arguably their best offensive strength.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK 🫡
— Army Men's Lacrosse (@ArmyWP_MLax) April 6, 2026
With four caused turnovers and two ground balls against the Bison, John Sullivan earns this week's @PatriotLeague Defensive Player of the Week title 😮💨
🔗 https://t.co/abp2fCymXa#FamilyToughnessTradition pic.twitter.com/yteOYnYAsu
Match-Up Notes
Army’s game plan this week is obvious. They’ll need to bring in the wings and contest faceoffs, turning the restarts into a scrum instead of allowing Navy to get the ball clean. They’ll also need to play good defense, forcing tough angle shots that G Sean Byrne can see clearly and therefore stop. On offense, we’ve seen that it can take a while for the Black Knights to get their ball movement down. Whether this is because they keep the ball moving so fast or because it just takes a little while to get a feel for what the defense is trying to do, Army needs to get off to a reasonably fast start and to make good, clean passes. If they can limit turnovers on offense, they should be in good shape.
The good news is that this game will be at West Point. Both teams have been much better at home all season and not remotely as good on the road. Indeed, three of Navy’s four losses have come on the road while the Black Knights have yet to lose at Michie Stadium. That’s no guarantee, of course, but in this rivalry, we take what we can get.
Brigid Duffy was key 🔑 in locking up Army's upset win over Yale last week ⚔️
— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALMag) April 7, 2026
She's the Division I Player of the Week, followed by two stars ⭐️ from Division II and III. pic.twitter.com/XSajLjSLWZ
Oh by the way, the Women start at noon, and they also take on Navy. Army’s Women have already beaten Patriot League powerhouse Loyola as well as national power Yale — at Yale! — so a win this weekend all but guarantees the Black Knights the chance to host this year’s Patriot League Tournament.
Friends, this Women’s game is a MONSTER contest. Navy’s team is currently ranked 8th nationally. Army sits at 13th.
The Men’s game follows the Women’s, starting at 2:30 pm. CBS Sports has coverage of both contests.
Go Army! Beat Navy!!!
