BRUNSWICK, Maine – The Bowdoin College men's lacrosse team will head to Rochester, N.Y., this weekend to battle in a NCAA Division III regional hosted by RIT. The Polar Bears (13-5) will battle NESCAC rival Middlebury (12-8) in the quarterfinal round on Saturday with hopes of advancing to Sunday's national semifinal.
 
Regional Schedule (all games at RIT) – Complete Bracket
Saturday, May 18
12:00 p.m. – RIT (19-2) vs. Christopher Newport (16-5)
3:00 p.m. – Bowdoin (13-5) vs. Middlebury (12-8)
Sunday, May 19
3:00 p.m. – NCAA Semifinal - Saturday's winners
 
Live Coverage
All games will be streamed live on NCAA.com. Live statistics will also be available at this link.
 
Tickets
Tickets can be purchased at the gate and are $5.00 for adults and $3 for students/children.
 
Polar Bear Game Notes
Ranked in the national polls throughout the season, Bowdoin is making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance overall this spring and advanced to the national quarterfinals for the second time ever, and second time in the last three seasons, this year. Bowdoin is looking for its first-ever NCAA semifinals berth.
 
Head Coach Bill Mason is in his third campaign at the helm of Bowdoin and has led the program to its winningest three-year stretch in program history, racking up a 42-13 mark dating back to the beginning of the 2022 campaign.
 
Bowdoin advanced out of last weekend's regional at RPI with a pair of comfortable wins. The Polar Bears scored the first ten goals of the game in a Saturday blowout of Grove City. Bowdoin then bounced host school RPI on Sunday, holding the Engineers to a season-low goal total in a 12-5 victory.
 
A school-record eight Polar Bears were recognized in All-Conference honors earlier this month, including NESCAC Player of the Year Will Byrne. A dynamic attackman, Byrne has made an indelible mark on the Bowdoin record books in just three seasons. Last weekend, he set the single season program record for points (107), previously held by Byrne's former teammate and current Polar Bear assistant coach Donal Mullane '22 (105 in 2022). He also set the school's single-season mark with 57 assists this spring. Byrne is the only Polar Bear men's lacrosse player in school history to surpass the 100-point mark in a season twice (2022 and '24) and his 291 career points, in just three seasons, is second only to Bowdoin Athletic Hall of Honoree Tom Ryan '93, who finished with 315.
 
Byrne leads a balanced Bowdoin offense that had five players total at least 45 points this season. Jason Lach leads the team with 58 goals, followed by Byrne with 50. First-year Casey Ryan burst onto the scene with 34 goals and 23 assists while Matt Ward (50 points) and Oliver Bernstein (45 points) have been reliable scoring options all year for Bowdoin.
 
Faceoff specialist Ethan Barnard 889 career faceoff wins are easily the most in school history while his .620 winning percentage (career) stands second all-time at Bowdoin. Barnard leads the team with 115 ground balls while dynamic short stick midfielder Zach Goorno is second with 58.
 
Backed by the performance of goaltender Robert Hobbs – a second Team All-NESCAC choice – as well as All-Conference defenseman Jed Hoggard and Nate Ryan, Bowdoin's defense ranked third in the NESCAC at 10.46 goals per game this season. The Polar Bears led the conference in special teams with a 75.6% penalty kill percentage and a 48.7% man-up scoring percentage on the year.
 
Bowdoin vs. Regional Opponents

• Middlebury is one of Bowdoin's longest-running lacrosse rivalries as the teams have met 60 times dating back to 1975 with the Panthers holding a 38-22 edge in the all-time series. The rivalry has been tight of late, as the teams split two games earlier this season, and are 2-2 in the last four matchups, 4-4 in the last eight, and 7-7 in the last 14 dating back to 2012. The teams have played once in NCAA Tournament history – a 10-7 Middlebury win back in 2008. Prior to NCAA play, Bowdoin defeated Middlebury for the ECAC Championship in 1983, '84, and '93 for three of their seven ECAC titles.
• Bowdoin has only faced RIT once in its program history, a 20-14 win by the Tigers in the quarterfinals of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Will Byrne had three goals and three assists in that contest, and Matt Ward added a pair of goals.
• Bowdoin and Christopher Newport have never played in men's lacrosse.