CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - UMBC's Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley/Ohio State) and University of Hartford's Aidan Genik (Toronto, Ontario/University of Western Ontario) have been named the inaugural America East Men's Lacrosse Player and Rookie of the Week for the 2009 season. The honors were announced on Monday, February 25.
Poillon, a senior midfielder,tallied five goals and five assists over his first two games in a Retriever uniform. Poillon, a All-American transfer from UMBC, scored four goals, including the game winner, and added three assists in UMBC's 17-10 victory over Rutgers Saturday. He also had a goal and two assists in the Retrievers' 14-9 season-opening win at Delaware on February 14.
Genik, a freshman attack, scored a game-high five goals and nearly led Hartford to its first victory since the 2007 season. Genik, who had half of his team's output, also added a pair of ground balls in the 11-10 overtime loss to the Big Green.
Weekly Notebook
Albany (0-1) fell to Denver, ranked No. 18 nationally in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll, in the Great Danes’ opener on Feb. 21... The Great Danes opened with a home game on campus for the first time at the Division I level... Denver’s Charley Dickenson had three goals, including what proved to be the game-winner and a 10-7 lead with 6:32 remaining... Dave Brock (Burlington, Ontario / Nelson) tried to rally the Great Danes by scoring back-to-back goals one minute and 44 seconds apart... Denver goalkeeper Peter Lowell came up with two of his 13 saves in the final minute of play to preserve the road win... Lowell stopped a six-yard blast from the middle of the zone by Corey Small (St. Catharines, Ontario / Holy Cross) with 17 seconds remaining... Small finished with three goals and one assist... The senior attackman has netted three or more goals 12 times as a collegian... Brian Caufield (Bay Shore, N.Y. / West Islip), Joe Pompo (Syracuse, N.Y. / West Genesee) and Brock each had two goals and one assist... Pompo drew his team even at six apiece with 2:39 left in the third quarter...goalkeeper John Carroll (Nesconset, N.Y. / Smithtown East) became the first freshman to start in the cage since Kevin Rae on March 1, 2002... Carroll made 11 saves in his college debut... Rae stopped 18 shots in an 11-9 loss to Butler seven years ago... UAlbany has 28 letterwinners and seven starters returning from last season’s 8-8 squad... The Great Danes were ranked in last week’s USILA (#17) and Nike/Inside Lacrosse (#13) national polls... UAlbany had won 19 of its previous 20 home games prior to Saturday’s one-goal loss... UAlbany is now 23-20 all-time in Division I games decided by two goals or less...
Binghamton (0-1) opened up its eighth season as an intercollegiate lacrosse program on Saturday against No. 6 Cornell at the Bearcats Sports Complex. It marked the first time in six career meetings against the Big Red that the Bearcats have been the host team. Binghamton's game against Cornell also marked the first of six games it will play against nationally-ranked opponents this season ... senior goalie Larry Kline (Beverly, Mass./Beverly) made 15 saves against Cornell. His career-high is 16 saves against Hobart on March 3, 2007. The Bearcats host Hobart on Tuesday at 5 p.m. ... Binghamton has seven home games this season at the Bearcats Sports Complex. It marks the first time in program history that they have had an even number of home and away contests during the regular season.
Hartford (0-1) lost its season opener to Dartmouth College by an 11-10 final in overtime last week. The Hawks led 8-6 with 13:00 to play in the contest before the Big Green rallied back behind four straight goals. Hartford scored twice in the final 6:26 to tie the game, netting the equalizer with under a minute to play off the stick of sophomore Vinny Pellizzi (Bohemia, N.Y./Connetquot). Dartmouth scored the game-winning goal with six seconds remaining in overtime to pull out the victory. Freshman Aidan Genik (Caledon, Ontario/Univ. of Western Ontario) led all scorers with five goals in his collegiate debut while Pellizzi finished with two. Senior Jacob Eustice (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) also added a goal and two assists for the Hawks while classmate Jon McMahon (Tonawanda, N.Y./Sweet Home) made seven saves in goal... Hartford will next play at the University of Delaware on Saturday, February 28 at noon.
UMBC (2-0) posted season-opening wins at Delaware (14-9) and over Rutgers (17-10), UMBC and avenged two of its four setbacks from a year ago... Against Rutgers, Senior midfielder Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley/Ohio State) scored a career-high four goals and junior midfielder Kyle Wimer (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) added three to lead ninth-ranked UMBC (2-0) to a victory over Rutgers (1-2) in the Retrievers’ home opener...Poillon added a career-best three assists to finish with a career-high seven points in the game, while Wimer (3g, 1a) and freshman midfielder Rob Grimm (Black River, N.Y./Carthage) (1g, 3a) tallied four points apiece... Through two games, Poillon has amassed 10 points (5g, 5a)... Wimer, who scored a career-high five goals in the opener vs. Delaware, leads UMBC with eight goals... UMBC rallied from a deficit of4-1 five minutes into the second quarter and outscored the Scarlet Knights, 15-3, over the next 35 minutes to lead 16-7 with five minutes to play... Against Delaware, the midfield unit of junior Wimer (5 goals), senior Alex Hopmann (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) (3 goals, 1 assist) and Poillon (1 goal, 2 assists) amassed nine goals and 12 total points in the game... UMBC grabbed a 6-0 lead after one quarter and coasted to the win in Newark... UMBC has now won 14 straight home games and 19 of the last 20, with the lone loss coming vs. Notre Dame and Duke... UMBC has won its last seven home openers since an 11-4 loss to Navy in 2002... Overall, head coach Don Zimmerman is 11-5 in UMBC home openers... Senior goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins (Cockeysville, Md./Calvert Hall) leads all active netminders in the nation in wins (34) and became the fourth player in school history to reach the 500 mark (501)... Junior attackman Matt Latham (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) posted three goals at Delaware and added a score vs. Rutgers has a scoring streak of 12 straight games alive... UMBC hosts its first 2008 NCAA Tournament qualifier from a year ago when it hosts Colgate on Feb. 28.
Stony Brook (0-1) faced Virginia in a season-opener for the fourth straight season ... the 20 goals scored by Virginia is the most surrendered by Stony Brook since the 2006 season when UMBC scored 20 ... only four starters against Virginia were in the starting lineup last season for Stony Brook ... only 10 of the 20 players that saw action against the Cavaliers played in a game a year ago for the Seawolves ... seven of the 14 total points scored by Stony Brook on Saturday came from first-year players ... sophomore Jordan McBride’s goal kept his scoring streak alive going back to last season ... he has now scored a point in eight straight game, tops on the team ... of the eight players that scored points against UVa, six established new career-highs for points in a game ... the crowd of 2,861 was the second straight attendance of 2,000 or more in LaValle Stadium going back to last season.
Vermont (0-0) opens its season this Saturday at Marist at 1 p.m... The Catamounts were chosen fifth in the America East Preseason Coaches' Poll.