GETTYSBURG, Pa.  – The 11th-ranked Gettysburg College men's lacrosse team will kick off its 26th trip to the NCAA Division III Championship at home against No. 18 St. John Fisher College at Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
 
TICKETS
Tickets will be sold at the front gate to the stadium. Cost for entry is $5 for adults; $3 for students ages 13-18 and students from participating institutions; and $2 for children 3-12. Children ages two and under are admitted free of charge.
 
GAME COVERAGE
Wednesday's game will feature live video and live stats through https://portal.stretchinternet.com/gettysburg/.
 
GAME PROGRAM
The official 2019 NCAA Division III Championship program is now available at https://www.ncaa.com/DIIIMensLacrosse. Printed copies will not be available during the preliminary rounds of competition. Gettysburg will provide a sheet with relevant team notes and statistical leaders at the contest.  
 
THE BRACKET
Get the latest updates on the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship by following along with the live interactive bracket at https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/lacrosse-men/d3.
 
THE SERIES
This is the first meeting between Gettysburg and St. John Fisher in men's lacrosse. The women's programs met once with the Bullets beating the Cardinals 17-15 in 2009.
 
NCAA HISTORY
The two teams are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to national postseason experience. Only a handful of teams sport more appearances and more wins in the NCAA tournament than Gettysburg, which is making its 26th appearance since 1989. The Bullets have won 31 national playoff games and have reached the championship game three times. The team has competed in the semifinals 11 times, including last season. St. John Fisher is making its first national appearance in its 18th year as an intercollegiate program.
 
COACHES
Only one coach in NCAA history can boast of more victories than Gettysburg coach Hank Janczyk, who is 422-122 in 32 seasons with the Bullets and 467-146 in 37 years as a head coach. Janczyk has led the Bullets to 19 conference titles and has never had a losing season at Gettysburg's helm. He led Gettysburg to the national title game in 2001, 2002, and 2009 and the team has made it to the semifinals in three of the last four campaigns.
 
Unlike his program, St. John Fisher Head Coach Dave Dobbins is well acquainted with the national stage having served as an assistant coach at Salisbury from 2003-09 and helping the Sea Gulls win NCAA championships in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. He was named the IMLCA Outstanding Assistant Coach of the Year at Salisbury in 2005. In his two seasons at St. John Fisher, Dobbins has led the Cardinals to a 28-8 record and back-to-back appearances in the Empire 8 Championship game, culminating in the school's first league title this spring.
 
ST. JOHN FISHER OVERVIEW
St. John Fisher has matched the program record for wins in a season and punched its national ticket by beating No. 10 Stevens 13-6 in the finals of the Empire 8 Championship. The Cardinals have won their last four games since a two-goal loss to Stevens in the regular season. The team's only other setback came at the hands of current No. 1 RIT 13-5 on March 20.
 
The Cardinals sport one of the nation's top offenses with an average of 17.9 goals per game, which ranks seventh in D3. The team has posted 20 or more goals in a game eight times this spring, including  a season-high 28 against Elmira. Nicholas Miller ranks fifth nationally in goals per game (4.2) and fourth in points per game (5.9). The sophomore attackman obliterated the program's single-season marks for goals (75) and points (107) in a season and recently set the Empire 8 mark for goals. Miller has tossed in multiple goals in every game this season, including seven against Oswego State. His offensive counterpart, Ian Evans, has also tallied a goal in every game this spring and leads the team with 34 assists to go along with 80 points.
 
Sophomore Joe Post leads the country in total ground balls with 223. He ranks fourth in ground balls per game (12.4) and is eighth in face-off winning percentage (.733). Against Hartwick in the Empire 8 semifinals, Post went 28-for-28 on face-offs with 27 ground balls. He also won 31 face-offs and scooped 27 ground balls in the regular-season meeting with Hartwick. 
 
Junior goalie Darin Eakins was tagged Empire 8 Championship MVP after posting 16 saves in the final game. Eakins ranks 13th in the country in goals against average (7.89).
 
GETTYSBURG OVERVIEW
The Orange and Blue recorded its 33rd consecutive winning season in 2019 and finished runner-up in the Centennial Conference Championship. The Bullets scored five wins over five nationally-ranked teams, including three over teams in the 2019 NCAA field (Stevenson, Ursinus, W&L). Gettysburg was upended by No. 14 Ursinus 10-8 in the conference finals last Saturday.
 
Gettysburg features seven players that have scored 100 or more points in their careers. That list includes seniors Jack Harvey (169), Tommy Heller (146), Blake Gray (117), and Andrew Garstka (103), juniors Brian Kolen (177) and Michael McCormick (116), and sophomore Jack Fletcher (112). Kolen leads the team with 57 goals this season, which is the fourth-best mark in program history. Fletcher's 35 assists are the best total by a Bullet in 17 years.
 
Heller missed the first three months of the season before returning for a few possessions in the final two regular-season contests. He loudly announced his return with a five-goal performance in a 15-13 victory over No. 15 Dickinson in the conference semifinals. The senior attackman added a goal and an assist in the finale against Ursinus.
 
Gettysburg has received a dozen goals from long-poles this spring, including eight alone from junior defenseman Mitch Wykoff. Wykoff has racked up 90 ground balls and 23 caused turnovers for the defensive unit and ranks fourth in program history in career ground balls (235). Sophomore Andrew Horn and junior Christian Atalese are tied with Wykoff for the team lead with 23 caused turnovers.
 
First-year goalie Scott MacMillan led the conference in goals against average (9.49) to go along with a save percentage of .517. MacMillan has logged 10 double-figure save efforts on the year, including a season-high 13 against both Stevenson and Haverford. Gettysburg has used three primary face-off specialists this season with freshman Joe Persche getting the lion's share over the last five outings. Persche has won 57.6 percent of his face-offs this spring.   
 
LOOKING AHEAD
The road doesn't get any easier in the bracket with the winner of Wednesday's game facing either Williams College (15-3) or Keene State College (11-5) Saturday. Williams finished runner-up in the NESCAC after falling to Tufts University 16-15 in overtime. Keene State received an automatic bid to the national tournament after winning the Little East Tournament championship.