The Towson men's lacrosse team will head to Fairfield, Connecticut this Saturday for a matchup with the Stags of Fairfield University. Towson will face off against Fairfield in a three-way tie for first after week one of the CAA season.

The Tigers escaped last Saturday beating Hofstra 10-9 in the conference opener at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium. It had been a rough week for the Tigers, as bug worked its way through the team. After falling behind by three goals in the first half, Towson bounced back to get the victory. Not only did it give the Tigers their first conference win, but it also snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Tigers are ranked 11^th in the nation in this week's coaches' poll. They are the highest ranked CAA team. UMass, which the Tigers host on April 13^th, is ranked 17^th. And don't look now, but the Blue Hens of Delaware are getting votes as they continue to roll.

But this week, it is Fairfield. Delaware beat Stags last Saturday 15-7, but Fairfield has always been a tough matchup for Towson. The two teams had never met until the Stags joined the CAA in 2015. The Tigers are 4-1 all-time against Fairfield, but two of those wins were 8-7 and another was 4-2 in the 2016 CAA Championship game. Fairfield's one win against the Tigers was also a one goal affair, with the Stags winning 9-8 in 2017. The only lopsided win was the regular season matchup in 2016 with Towson winning 18-11.

The Tigers will need to be road warriors if they want a conference regular season title, and the right to host the CAA tournament. The Tigers have one more home game, the matchup with the Minutemen next week. Besides this week's game against Fairfield, Towson will have to travel to Delaware and Drexel the final two weeks of the year.

One thing the Tigers certainly improved on this past week against Hofstra were the turnovers. Towson had been careless with the ball for much of the season but against the Pride this past Saturday, the Tigers had just 17 turnovers. That is still more than Coach Nadelen would like, but you have to go back five games to the Loyola game for the last time Towson had fewer than 20 turnovers in a game.

A win this Saturday will guarantee that Towson will remain in at least a tie for first with the big matchup coming against UMass next week. But they will be facing a Stag team that knows if they start the conference season at 0-2, their chances of making the CAA Tournament will take an awful blow.

The Tigers will have to be have to be on point and ready to lasso these Stags from Fairfield.

Glenn Smith and I will have the call on TowsonTigers.com starting at 12:45 p.m. from the Nutmeg State. We hope you will tune in.

Until next week, GO TIGERS!!!