UAlbany lacrosse star cleared after knee injury

Albany

University at Albany men's lacrosse star Connor Fields said he expects to play against Harvard on Wednesday night, four days after injuring his right knee in Saturday's victory at UMass Lowell.

"I feel really good, so I'm ready for Wednesday,'' Fields said today.

Fields said tests on the knee turned out negative, enabling him to play for the top-ranked Great Danes (8-0) against the No. 19 Crimson (7-1) at Casey Stadium.

"I think that's the goal and and that's our coaching staff and training staff's expectation, too,'' Fields said. "There's just a little swelling right now, so I think it's fine."

UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said Fields was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral ligament.

Fields didn't practice with the Great Danes today, instead going through agility drills. He was limping slightly afterward. He said he intends to practice on Tuesday.

Marr said he isn't tempted to sit Fields out against Harvard as a precaution.

"He's fine,'' Marr said. "If he was hurt, I'd take him out. He's not hurt, so he's going to play. Guys get banged up during the season. Guys play with the injuries all the time. It's nothing structurally wrong with his knee, so he's going to want to play and we're certainly going to want him to play. We need him to play."

Fields, a senior attack, leads Division I with 7.13 points per game. He became UAlbany's career leader with 191 goals on Saturday.

The injury happened when Fields slipped as he was dodging toward the right side of the cage in the first quarter against the River Hawks. He limped off the field. He returned to the game twice before finally sitting for good in the second half.

"I just felt a little discomfort at the time,'' Fields said. "We had a lot of games over the past couple of weeks, so just in case anything was wrong, I didn't want to rush back into it. So I kind of just took most of the game off and I'm feeling really good today."

Marr said there were anxious moments immediately after Fields got hurt.

"You never want to see anybody go down, but when it's somebody as valuable as he is, it certainly makes your heart stop for a little bit,'' Marr said. "But he's a tough kid and we put him back in the game. We just felt at that time the game was in control, so we took him out and put some ice on it. He'll be fine."

In other news, UAlbany's Sean Eccles and JD Colarusso won America East Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively. Eccles scored a career-high five goals against UMass Lowell while Colarusso made a career-best 20 saves.

msingelais@timesunion.com • 518-454-5509 • @MarkSingelais