GAMEDAY (Feb. 23, 2019): The Engineers make their season debut when they host Keene State in a non-league contest at East Campus Stadium (1pm).

ALL-TIME VS. KEENE STATE: The Engineers are 3-4 all-time against the Owls.

LAST SEASON: Keene State scored six goals in the second quarter and seven more in the fourth and the Owls defeated RPI 18-11 in the season opener for both teams ... Five players had multiple goals in the victory, led by Connor Nolan and Paul Beling, both of whom had four, along with an assist each ... Matt Howe made 17 saves for the win ... Zach Lukas finished with five goals and an assist, while Cliff Kigar scored twice for the Engineers ... Matthew Gilman had a goal and an assist and JT Kelly had two helpers ... Parker Smith started in goal and took the loss. 

RECENT SEASON STARTERS: The Engineers are 4-6 in their last 10 season openers, including 1-2 against Keene State over the past three years ... All four of the wins have come at East Campus Stadium against four different opponents (Keene State, Montclair State, Manhattanville and Mount Saint Mary) ... The losses have been to Keene (2x), Montclair (3x) and Endicott.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN: RPI has a 51-man roster that features 11 seniors, seven juniors, 15 sophomore and 18 freshmen.

THREE OF FOUR: Rensselaer returns three of its top four point producers in Cliff Kigar (35 goals, 19 assists), JT Kelly (20 goals, 29 assists) and Lucas Bastarache (15 goals, 17 assists) ... Kigar was first on the team in goals and points (54), Kelly was first in assists (29) and third in points (49) and Bastarache was fourth in points (32) ... All three are seniors.

2019 CAPTAINS: The Engineers will be led on the field by seniors Lucas Bastarache, JT Kelly and JP McGrady ... Bastarache has been named the captain with Kelly and McGrady serving as assistant captains ... Bastarache and Kelly have both played 45 career games, while McGrady has seen action in 31 contests in his first three seasons.

PRE-SEASON ALL-AMERICA: Rensselaer's Keaton Ackermann, Lucas Bastarache and Quinn Fettig are among those recognized by Inside Lacrosse as Division III Preseason All-Americans ... Ackermann, a defenseman, was selected to the Third Team, while Bastarache, a midfielder, and Fettig a defenseman, garnered Honorable Mention recognition ... All three are seniors.

NEW STAFF: The Engineers have a new coaching staff, led by Scott Hackett-Dalgliesh, an 11-year coaching veteran who joins Rensselaer from Dartmouth College, where he was an assistant from 2015-18 ... Among his stops prior to working with the Big Green was as head coach of Division III Marywood University from 2012 to 2014 ... Hackett-Dalgliesh is being assisted by Vinny Biancardi, Aaron Leeds and Josh Porcell.

RPI IN 2018: Last season, Rensselaer had a 12-4 overall record with a 6-2 conference mark ... The Engineers played in the Liberty League Tournament semifinals, losing in double overtime ... RPI, which had an eight-game winning streak from March 3 to April 3, was nationally-ranked for the latter half of the season, climbing as high as 17th in the USILA Poll.

PRESEASON POLL: In a vote by the league's head coaches, RIT received eight first-place votes for 64 points to rank first in the 2019 Liberty League Preseason Poll ... Ithaca was second with 53 points and a first-place vote ... Rensselaer and St. Lawrence tied for third with 47 points apiece ... Union rounded out the top five with 38 points while Skidmore (26) narrowly edged out Clarkson (25) for sixth ... The Golden Knights were followed by Vassar (16) and Bard (8) ... The Brewers and Thoroughbreds both have new head coaches.