NAZARETH VISITS WESLEYAN WEDNESDAY
Golden Flyers (16-2) play in national quarterfinals
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (May 14, 2007) -- Nazareth's men's lacrosse team competes Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III Tournament as the Golden Flyers match up with Wesleyan University in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Wednesday's game will be played at Wesleyan's Jackson Field in Middletown, Conn. Game time is 4:30 p.m. The game will be available via webcast through www.wesleyan.edu/athletics.

Nazareth (16-2) advanced with last Saturday's decisive 15-5 win over Geneseo in a game played at Golden Flyer Stadium. Wesleyan hosted Middlebury for the third time this season and prevailed 13-9.

Wednesday's winner reaches the national semifinals Sunday to play the winner of the Cortland-at-Western New England game.

GETTING THERE: Nazareth, ranked fourth nationally, finished second in the regular-season Empire 8 Conference standings and needed to win tough tournament games against RIT (14-8) and Ithaca (16-14) to gain the conference's automatic bid. In addition to two wins over RIT and one over Ithaca in 2007, Nazareth has a non-conference win over 10th-ranked Cortland (7-6). and two wins over 18th-ranked Geneseo. Nazareth's only losses came to third-ranked Western New England (9-4) and eighth-ranked Ithaca (15-9).

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Nazareth had two players chosen as first-team Empire 8 Conference all-stars in senior attackman Ryan Hotaling (pictured) and senior midfielder Chad Amidon, both graduates of Onondaga Central in Syracuse. Hotaling missed four games early in the season with a shoulder injury but still was named E8 Player of the Year and leads the Golden Flyers in scoring with 57 points on 35 goals and 22 assists. He ranks third all-time with 137 career goals and needs five more to tie Marty Kelly, '92 as the all-time leader. He scored five goals and added one assist in Nazareth's 16-14 win at Ithaca in the E8 title game and then went 4 and 3 against Geneseo. Amidon has 54 points on 34 goals and 20 assists to go with a team-best 100 ground balls. He has won 59.5 percent of his face-offs (166-for-279).

Nazareth also had the Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Year in freshman attackman Erinn O'Hara (Salisbury School/Camillus, NY), who is fourth on the team in scoring with 38 points on 24 goals and 14 assists. The third attackman is senior Jordan Hirsch (Hendrick Hudson HS/Montrose, NY), who has 40 points on 25 goals and 15 assists.

Second-team all-conference selections included senior long-stick midfielder Francis Donald (St. Mark's School/Dallas, TX), senior defenseman Ryan Conley (Fairfield HS/Fairfield, CT) and senior goalie Pat Mullin (Irondequoit HS/Rochester, NY).

O'Hara was an honorable mention choice along with senior midfielder Conor O'Keefe (Stony Brook School/Setauket, NY), junior midfielder Mark Kanellis (Cortland HS/Cortland, NY) and senior defenseman Will Tuttle (Phillips Exeter Academy/Kennebunk, ME).

HEAD COACH ROB RANDALL: A native of Irondequoit, Rob Randall is in his seventh season with the Golden Flyers and was recently honored for the third time as Empire 8 Conference Coach of the Year. He also was honored in 2001 and 2003. His 94-22 record (.810) at Nazareth includes a 16-2 mark in 2007.
In 2004, Randall guided Nazareth to its sixth national championship game appearance, where the Golden Flyers were beaten by Salisbury, 13-9.
Randall was head coach for one season at Geneseo and for four seasons at Sacred Heart in Connecticut before coming to Nazareth. He also served as an assistant coach at Army for three seasons.
As a player, Randall was a starting attackman and Offensive MVP of Nazareth's 1987 team that finished with a record of 8-5 in just its second season of intercollegiate play.

NAZARETH IN THE NCAAs: Nazareth is making its 17th appearance in the NCAA Tournament for men's lacrosse and the fifth in seven seasons under head coach Rob Randall. Nazareth won national titles in 1992, 1996, and 1997 and finished second in 1995, 1998 and 2004. Nazareth is 26-13 in tournament play.

SCOUTING WESLEYAN: The Cardinals, ranked sixth nationally, compete in the New England Small College Athletic Conference and gained an at-large bid to the NCAAs after being upset by Middlebury in the finals of the conference tournament. Wesleyan avenged that defeat with Saturday's 13-9 win, a game in which they led by as much as 12-3. The win enabled the Cardinals (17-2) to tie a school record for most wins in a season.
Three players were honored as first-team all-NESCAC in sophomore attackman Russ Follansbee; sophomore defenseman Spike Malangone and senior goalie Charlie Congleton. Senior midfielder Mike Hines made second team and freshman attackman Jon Killeen was the Rookie of the Year.
Jason Ben-Eliyahu is the leading scorer with 53 points on 34 goals and 19 assists. Follansbee is next (23-19--42), followed by junior attackman Grayson Connors (29-9--38) and Hines (22-15--37). Congleton has 191 saves in 19 starts for a 5.79 goals-against average and a .656 save percentage.

NAZARETH 15, GENESEO 5: Nazareth fell behind early, 2-0, then dominated the game by holding quarter leads of 3-2, 7-2 and 11-5. Hotaling scored four goals and added three assists and senior midfielder Kevin Kimball (pictured) also scored four times. Senior goalie Pat Mullin made 11 saves.
Aaron Civalier (Penfield HS/Rochester, NY) scored three goals and Chad Amidon contributed two goals and one assist. Amidon also collected eight ground ball and won 10 of 20 faceoffs.