TROY, N.Y. - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team begins post-season play on Saturday afternoon when the Engineers host Clarkson University in the first round of the Liberty League Tournament. RPI and Clarkson face off at 2pm at East Campus Stadium.

Rensselaer (11-4; 5-3 Liberty League) is the No. 3 seed in the six-team tournament and hosts the Golden Knights (8-7; 3-5) for the second time in a week. RPI and Clarkson played last Saturday with the Engineers prevailing 20-8 behind six goals from junior Owen Putman (Ballston Lake, NY / Shenendehowa), including five in a 7-0 stretch through the second quarter.

Also on Saturday is the conference's other first round matchup of No. 5 St. Lawrence University (12-3; 5-3) at No. 4 Ithaca College (8-5; 5-3). The Nos. 3-5 seeds were determined by a series of tiebreakers. Top seed Rochester Institute of Technology (16-1; 8-0) and No. 2 seed Union College (12-2; 7-1) have byes and will host semifinals on May 1. The highest remaining seed hosts the championship game on May 4.

Under first-year head coach Scott Hackett-Dalgliesh, RPI has scored 219 goals while allowing 156 in 15 regular season contests. It also lead its opponents in ground balls (570-546), caused turnovers (155-127), clear percentage (.790-.610) and save percentage (.534-.471).

Senior attack JT Kelly (Acton, MA / Acton-Boxborough Regional) is first on team in points with 71 and assists with 37. A team-best eight of his 34 goals have come man-up and one has been man-down. Putman, a junior attack, is first in goals with 47 to go with 20 assists for 67 points. He is second in assists and points and first in shots (127) and shots on goal (78). He has six man-up goals and 32 ground balls. Freshman attack Cooper Urban (Glen Mills, PA / Salesianum School) is second on the squad with 35 goals, along with 20 assists for 55 points. 

Seniors Keaton Ackermann (Erieville, NY / Cazenovia) and Quinn Fettig (Bend, OR / Bend) lead the defense, combining for 54 ground balls and 49 caused turnovers. Ackermann is first in caused turnovers (33) and Fettig is second with 16. They have 31 and 23 ground balls, respectively. Rensselaer has won 48.7 percent of its faceoffs (208 of 427) with sophomore Tyler Hancock (Eagle, CO / Vail Mountain School) winning 50.2 percent (107 of 213).

Brian Doughty (Glenelg, MD / Glenelg), also a sophomore, is 9-4 with a 10.18 goals against average and a .540 save percentage, while freshman Kyle Botsford is 2-0 with a 11.17 average and a .545 save percentage. 

Rensselaer, which was ranked No. 18 nationally heading into this week, got six points from both Putman and senior Lucas Bastarache (Wayland, MA / Wayland), who had four goals and two assists, against Clarkson on April 20. Urban scored twice with an assist and sophomore Nick DeOliveira (Lanoka Harbor, NJ / Lacey Township) won 20 of 26 faceoffs with a game-high nine ground balls. Doughty made 10 saves for the Engineers, who had a 53-26 edge in groundballs and a 60-37 advantage in shots.

The Golden Knights were led offensively by junior Pierce Currie, who scored twice. Conor Bartlett and Marcus Lavarnway both had a goal and an assist and Jay Considine scored once with a team-high four ground balls. Kevin Dyckman and Matt Yonko shared time in the crease.

Clarkson and Rensselaer have met in the league tournament twice with both contests in Troy and both teams winning once. The Golden Knights won the championship game in 2004 (8-6), while RPI prevailed in the semifinals in 2005 (10-9). The two teams also met in the semifinals of the 1999 ECAC Tournament with Rensselaer winning 21-8 in Canton, N.Y.