Ohio State, Rutgers Meet Thursday in B1G Tournament Semifinal

No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 17 Rutgers
Date: Thursday, May 1
Time: 5 p.m. ET
Venue: U-M Lacrosse Stadium
Watch: BTN
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Rosters: Ohio State | Rutgers
Season Stats: Ohio State | Rutgers
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 5 Ohio State men’s lacrosse team returns to Ann Arbor, Mich. this week, this time for the 2025 Big Ten Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. The Buckeyes (12-2, 4-1 B1G) face off against No. 17 Rutgers (7-8, 3-2 B1G) Thursday, May 1 at 5 p.m. at U-M Lacrosse Stadium in the first semifinal game of the conference tournament.
 
The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network with Joe Beninati and Mark Dixon on the call. Live stats can be found at OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
 
Buckeyes In a Nutshell

• Ohio State earned the first overall seed, and the first-round bye, in the Big Ten Tournament by winning the league’s regular season title. The Buckeyes defeated Michigan, 10-8, in the regular season finale April 19 to clinch their first Big Ten regular season championship in program history.
• The Buckeyes’ regular season campaign was one of the most successful in program history. In addition to the conference title, the fourteenth in program history, the Buckeyes won the Creator’s Trophy, defeated three of last year’s final four teams and had an 11-game win streak.
• Ohio State is ranked fifth in the media and coaches’ polls this week. The team has been ranked for the last 10 weeks and top 10 for the last eight.
• The Buckeyes had six players named to All-Big Ten teams this season. Earning first team recognition are Caleb Fyock, Alex Marinier and Bobby Van Buren. Cullen Brown picked up second team honors while Liam White was named to the league’s first All-Freshman Team.
• Fyock was named the league’s Specialist of the Year, becoming the fourth Ohio State player and first Buckeye goalie to win the award. He finished Big Ten play with a conference-best 60% save percentage. The sophomore from Bowie, Md. averaged a league high 15 saves per game in the five-game conference schedule. Fyock recorded a career-best 19 saves in the regular season win over Rutgers and has made double digit saves in the last seven games.
• The Buckeyes’ offense topped the league in regular season Big Ten play, finishing the five-game conference schedule with a league-high 58 goals, 11.6 goals per game and a .341 shot percentage. Marinier’s 41 goals in the regular season were the most by a Big Ten player. He and Garrett Haas finished the campaign top two in the conference with over 40 percent shooting.
• The team has eight players scoring in double figures. Ten players have recorded 10-plus points while Marinier, Haas (23), Ryan Donnery (18), Ed Shean (18), Gannon Matthews (14), Shane O’Leary (14), Ben Mayer (12) and Jack McKenna (10) have double digit goals on the year.
• The Buckeye defense has held opponents to just 8.79 goals per game. The mark is good for top 10 nationally. Cullen Brown is fifth in the country with 2.21 caused turnovers per game while Fyock’s save percentage and goals against average (7.58) rank second and third, respectively.
• Jack Oldman’s 7.63 ground balls per game rank second in the conference and 10th in the country. He is .516 from the face off dot for the Buckeyes this season.
• Ohio State has played six games against ranked opponents this season and has a 5-1 record in those contests.

History vs. the Scarlet Knights

• Thursday is the 14th meeting between Ohio State and Rutgers.
• The Buckeyes won the regular season matchup between the teams, 13-11, on March 29 in Columbus. McKenna recorded his best game as a Buckeye with two goals and three assists for a team-high five points. Fyock recorded a career-high 19 saves.
• The first game of the series was played in 1999 – an 11-9 win for the Buckeyes. The teams did not meet again until they became conference opponents in the Big Ten in 2015.
• Ohio State has six wins in the all-time series, including five as conference foes.
• Thursday is just the second meeting for the teams in the Big Ten Tournament. The teams faced off against each other in the 2022 semifinals with the Scarlet Knights, which was the Buckeyes’ last appearance in the tournament semifinal.

Up Next
The winner of Thursday’s semifinal will play in Saturday’s championship game set for 8 p.m. from U-M Lacrosse Stadium. They will play the winner of the second semifinal between No. 2 seed Maryland and No. 3 seed Penn State. The game will be televised on Big Ten Network.
 
 

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