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The DU men’s lacrosse team had an excellent past four weeks. Their reward is a hyped matchup with the defending champion Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon.

The No. 4 ranked Blue Devils come into the game at Bethpage, N.Y., a neutral sight in Long Island, after being defeated by top-ranked Syracuse. Duke was able to come back from a 9-2 deficit at halftime, but the rally had them fall short as they lost 13-11.

The loss ended Duke’s seven-game winning streak, dropping them to 8-3 on the season.

The No. 10 Pioneers (7-2, 3-0 ECAC) head into the game with a four-game win streak after defeating Hobart in an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference game this past weekend.

The Pioneers were down 6-2 early in the first half, but were sparked by five goals from Mark Matthews and came back to defeat Hobart 15-11.

The Pioneers will need to be strong on the defensive end and in the net to pull out the upset over the defending champs as they will look to pound the ball inside.

The Blue Devils have five players who have scored in double figures this season led by Zach Howell; whereas the Pioneers have only four led by Matthews.

Two factors that could help the Pioneers hold off the Blue Devils will be to win the groundball battle and win the faceoff duel.

The Blue Devils have an edge over the Pioneers scooping up 368 to 355 groundballs. The Pioneers have the slight edge over the Blue Devils in the faceoff circle, winning 55.7 percent to the Blue Devils’ 55.4 percent.

If the Pioneers can get the win it will be the most important victory of the season and leaves DU sitting at a comfortable 8-2 record.

According to a teammate, the Pioneers may have to do it without senior captain Andrew Lay who went down to injury last week during practice.

The game will take place at at Bethpage High School in Bethpage, New York.