HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's lacrosse team is riding a three-game winning streak after some standout defensive efforts that have seen the Fords allow just seven goals over the past three contests. On Monday, the Centennial Conference recognized that effort as goalie Eric Caliendo was named the conference's defensive player of the week.
In the two games from this past week, Caliendo allowed just four goals in his 113:21 of playing time. He was replaced by freshman Dylan Slack for the final 6:39 of playing time in the 15-2 win against Gwynedd Mercy. Caliendo stopped 24 of the 28 shots on goal he faced during the week as he finished with a .857 save percentage en route to his two victories.
During the victory against Gwynedd Mercy, Caliendo was called on to make 10 saves before exiting the game in the final minutes. He did not allow the visiting Griffins to get on the scoreboard until midway through the second quarter. Gwynedd Mercy did not score its second goal until midway through the fourth quarter. By that time, Haverford had built a 14-1 lead following a recent 10-0 run that spanned the time in between Griffin goals.
The Fords' co-captain ended his week with a 14 save outing against Wooster. The senior did not allow a goal during the final 31:54 of playing time as Haverford pulled away during the second half with a 9-2 victory. On top of the saves, Caliendo collected a career-high nine ground balls and caused three turnovers during that contest.
Caliendo has been the goalie of record in each of Haverford's four wins this season. He is allowing just 5.54 goals per game this season and has stopped 64.8% of the shots on goal that he has faced. The honorable mention All-CC goalie from a season ago is currently ranked fourth in program history in both saves per game (11.17) and goals against average (9.41). His goals against average this season is over a full goal lower than Pete Bowers '74 GAA of 6.75 during the inaugural 1971 season when Haverford was a club team.
Men's lacrosse will head back out on the road this Saturday for its only game of the week. The team will travel to No. 15 Stevens with that contest scheduled to get underway at 2 p.m. Saturday's game will be the final contest before the start of Centennial Conference play.