Game 19 Pregame: Merrimack closes out non-conference play tonight at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. — Merrimack hits the road tonight for their final non-conference game of the season against Holy Cross.

The Warriors are 6-2 in non-conference games this season. The only two losses were the season-opening losses at Arizona State. With a win tonight, the Warriors will have their best non-conference record since they went 9-2-1 in 2014-15.

LIVE UPDATES: Click here to follow me on Twitter/X @MikeMcMahonCHN for live updates all night from the Hart Center.

Game Notes

— This will be Merrimack’s first (and only) Tuesday game of the regular season. The Warriors went 2-1 on Tuesdays last season but all of those games were at home (including a 5-1 win over Holy Cross on Nov. 22). Merrimack’s last Tuesday road game was Jan. 25, 2022 at UConn.

— For those wondering, the reason why Merrimack didn’t move up in the Pairwise after Sunday’s win over Stonehill was because the game had to be removed from the Pairwise formula. Merrimack would have actually dropped in the Pairwise by beating the Skyhawks. In the current formula, “bad wins” are removed because it would cause a team’s RPI to decrease despite the victory.

This Pairwise tweak was originally only applied to conference tournament games, but as of 2006-07 was modified to include all games.

— Luke Weilandt and Nikita Borodayenko are back in the lineup tonight.

— Bentley and Army is the only other game on the schedule tonight, which makes it easy to project the Pairwise implications of tonight’s game. The Warriors enter the night ranked No. 27.

Merrimack’s Lineup

Scratches: Mike Brown, Trevor Griebel, Max Wattvil, Brady Hunter, David Sacco, Chase Stevenson, Tyler Young

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION: Anyone with a Merrimack email address receives 50% off a TMR subscription. This offer is good for Merrimack students and staff. Sign up using the button below.