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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – After missing the Commonwealth Conference Tournament for the first time in six years in 2013, the Lycoming College men's lacrosse team is back in the tournament, securing the No. 4 seed in the postseason conflict which opens on Tuesday, April 29, when Lycoming hosts No. 5 seed Messiah in the first round game at the Shangraw Athletic Complex at 4 p.m.
 
Tickets for the contest will be available at the both the Packer Street and Union Avenue gates. Adults are $5, seniors $4, students $2 and children under 6 are free. While MAC season passes will be accepted, Lycoming Athletics Complimentary passes will not be accepted at the gate.
 
The winner of Tuesday's game will move on to face top-seeded Stevenson in a conference semifinal on Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m. at Mustangs Stadium. No. 3 Albright will travel to No. 2 Widener for the other semifinal at 8 p.m. on Thursday, with the winners of the two games meeting in the conference championship on Saturday, May 3, at the site of the highest seed remaining.
 
The Warriors (6-9 overall, 4-4 Commonwealth) have endured a roller-coaster season, starting the year with five straight losses thanks to a tough preseason schedule that included losses to then-seventh-ranked Dickinson, the Landmark Conference Tournament's top-seed Susquehanna and 11^th-ranked Ithaca.
 
They followed that with six straight wins, including the first four Commonwealth Conference games. The streak finished with a 6-2 win over Messiah in the two teams' regular season meeting. The regular season closed, though, with four losses, three of which came against the tournament's top three seeds, including second-ranked Stevenson.
 
Still, the 4-0 start in conference play was more than enough to help the Warriors clinch a playoff berth for the sixth time in the past seven years, where they will face Messiah, which finished 7-8 overall and 4-4 in the Commonwealth Conference.
 
The Warriors are led by two of the highest-scoring players in the Commonwealth Conference in senior Matt McCaffer (Marcellus, N.Y./Marcellus) and junior Sean Reilly (Corning, N.Y./Corning-Painted Post West).
 
McCaffer is leading the conference in goals for the second straight year, striking 3.07 times per game. He leads the league by a wide margin, with Messiah's Will Franken tied for second at 2.33 goals per contest. McCaffer's quick hands and superior inside play has also helped him to sit third in the league in points per game at 3.13.
 
Reilly, the wily left-hander, is one of the league's best passers and his favorite target is McCaffer. Reilly has assisted on 21 goals, sitting third in the league at 1.62 per game. He is also fourth in the league at 3.08 points per contest, sitting right behind McCaffer.
 
Sophomore Mike Cooper (Riva, Md./Archbishop Spalding) is another key piece of the attack, as the shifty player in fourth in the league in assists, averaging 1.47 per contest, and is third on the team with 36 points.
 
The team's defense is paced by the solid goalkeeping of junior Alex Wylly (Columbus, Ohio/Worthing Kilbourne), who is second in the league in saves at 13.47 per game. An athletic keeper, Wylly has saved 57 percent of the shots he has faced this year, which is the seventh-highest percentage in school history, while his 202 saves this season are already second in the school's record book.
 
Messiah, which is making its second straight appearance in the conference tournament, is led by Franken, one of the top scorers in the Commonwealth Conference, and Nate Nester, who is 10^th in the league in assists at 1.13 per game. The team's goaltender, Brooks Arnold, is fourth in the league in save percentage at .593, and fifth in saves per game at 10.08 per game.
 
In the first meeting between the two squads, the Warriors shut down Messiah in the second half, forcing nine turnovers and picking up 13 ground balls while not winning a faceoff en route to the 6-2 win. Messiah took 17 shots, but only seven were on cage and all were stopped by Wylly. McCaffer, meanwhile, provided the separation after the game went into halftime tied at two, as he wrapped around the right side of the crease and found the left netting midway through the quarter. He scored twice more in the quarter to open up the game.