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GAMEDAY: The Engineers (13-4; 5-2 Liberty League) host Amherst College (12-4; 8-2 NESCAC) in an NCAA First Round Tournament game at East Campus Stadium on Wednesday at 3pm.
IN THE FIELD: Both the Liberty League, Rensselaer's conference (RPI, RIT, St. Lawrence), and the NESCAC, Amherst's league (Amherst, Tufts, Middlebury) placed three teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
SECOND ROUND: The winner of the Engineers vs. Jeffs matchup plays either RIT vs. John Carroll contest on Saturday at a site to be determined ... The Tigers and Blue Streaks meet at 4pm.
NCAA OPPONENTS: Seven of RPI's 17 games were against teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament ... The Engineers went 3-4 in those games, beating Ithaca, Whittier and St. Lawrence ... RPI lost to SLU, Keene State and RIT twice, including in Sunday's Liberty League Championship Game (15-5).
AMHERST VS. THE FIELD: The Jeffs played five teams that are in the NCAA Tournament, going 2-3 ... They defeated Cortland and Springfield and lost to Western New England, Middlebury and Tufts.
NATIONALLY-RANKED: RPI is listed 13th in the most recent USILA/Nike Coaches Poll ... Amherst is 11th, while RIT, a potential second round opponent, is No. 2.
FOURTH APPEARANCE: Wednesday's game marks the fourth time in school history Rensselaer has qualified for the NCAA Tournament ... The most recent appearance came in 2010 when it hosted Middlebury in a second round contest, a 16-8 loss ... RPI traveled to Washington College (Md.) in 2000, losing 15-6 ... The Engineers advanced to the quarterfinals in 2001, defeating Cortland, 9-7, before losing at Nazareth, 15-14.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: RPI has one NCAA Championship to its credit, earning the distinction in 1952 before there was a post-season tournament.
LAST WEEK: Rensselaer went 1-1 last week while playing in the Liberty League Tournament ... On Friday, Junior
Matt Hall recorded four points and classmate
David Gibbs made 11 saves to lead RPI to a 10-4 victory at St. Lawrence in the semifinals ... Hall had a hand in all four RPI goals in the third quarter - including three straight goals in a span of 4:56 - to help the Engineers turn a 2-2 tie into a 6-2 lead ... Two days later in Rochester, RIT jumped out to a 10-2 halftime lead and the Tigers posted a 15-5 win over the Engineers in the championship game ... Freshman
JT Kelly led Rensselaer with two goals, while Hall,
Jake Weidner and
Quinn Fettig each scored a goal ... Gibbs stopped 10 shots.
HONORED: Freshman attack
JT Kelly was named the Liberty League Rookie of the Week after tallying two goals and two assists with nine shots and a ground ball last week ... It is the second straight week he has been recognized.
ABOUT AMHERST: Amherst last played on April 30 when it lost to Williams College, 11-10, in the NESCAC Quarterfinals ... The Jeffs, who outscore their opponents, 14.00 to 10.73, won its last two regular season games, and five of its last six, including an 11-8 win over the Ephs, before falling to Williams in the conference tournament.
COMMON OPPONENTS: The Engineers and Jeffs have three common opponents, both going 3-0: Skidmore, Connecticut College and Hamilton ... RPI played each of those games on the road and won 12-4, 11-7 and 13-10, respectively ... The Jeffs played Skidmore (19-8) and Hamilton (17-7) at home and travelled to Conn. (15-9).
