Albany has had two weeks to simmer on its first loss of the season. Two weeks to figure out what went wrong in the shocking loss to UMBC on April 6.

The short-handed Great Danes fell victim to a disciplined and opportunistic Retrievers team, which had nothing to lose that night. Gone is the undefeated season — but the top ranking in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 remains.

Fortunately, Albany will welcome back its heart and soul this weekend, with Tewaaraton candidate Connor Fields returning from a sprained MCL he suffered on March 24. He’ll step into the leading role on a Great Danes offense that averaged 16.2 goals per game before his injury and 11.3 per game after it (not including the UMass Lowell game in which he was injured).

Fields will take the field against Binghamton on Friday night, a game that the Great Danes will be expected to win. If they do so, a huge matchup with Yale awaits.

Outside of its thrilling win over Maryland at College Park, the trip to New Haven to meet the No. 5 Bulldogs might be the biggest game of the season for Albany. Will we see the team that came back to beat Cornell and Maryland, or will the loss to UMBC carry over to this weekend?

NO. 1 ALBANY AT NO. 5 YALE
WHEN: Sunday, 1 p.m.
WATCH: ESPN3/ESPNU

Yale, conversely, has had its star for the entire season. Ben Reeves, a Tewaaraton candidate himself, has been quietly putting up consistent numbers in each game. He’s tallied at least four points in every game this season and sits sixth in Division I with 5.58 points per game. 

Fields (second nationally in points per game) and Reeves are the go-to guys on their respective offenses, but each has a talented understudy that is waiting in the wings. For Fields, freshman sensation Tehoka Nanticoke had been steady this season with 31 goals and 22 assists. Reeves has been mentoring sophomore Jackson Morrill, who sits second on the team with 25 goals and 16 assists.

These teams certainly have the potential to light up the scoreboard, with each sitting in the top five in scoring offense. Albany is second in the nation with 14.64 goals per game, while Yale sits fourth with 13.58.

This game could come down to which defense holds its ground first. Both the Great Danes and Bulldogs average fewer than nine goals allowed per game, and both took down the top offense in the country in Cornell. Albany allowed just nine goals to the Big Red, while Yale held them to 11 goals.

The Bulldogs, too, are playing the biggest game of its season. After sweeping through its Ivy League slate so far, Yale can use this game as a litmus test to see where it stands with the top teams in the nation. 

For Albany, it’s a chance to rebound and start the stretch run with some momentum. Will the Great Danes drop another late-season game, or is it back to business for Scott Marr’s crew?

Other games highlighting the weekend include:

• No. 12 Penn State at No. 9 Rutgers
  Sunday, 7 p.m., BTN
  
  The primetime Big Ten matchup will be one filled with intrigue, with the Nittany Lions coming off an upset of Johns Hopkins and Rutgers looking to bounce back from a one-goal loss to Maryland last weekend. At 2-1, Penn State is looking to keep pace with the Blue Jays for the second seed in the Big Ten, while the Scarlet Knights risk falling out of the top four with a loss and an Ohio State victory. The Penn State offense have come alive during a run of four wins in five games, with at least 12 goals in each of those games. Rutgers will have to fight for possession against Gerard Arceri, who sits fourth in Division I with 70.2 faceoff win percentage. Joe Fransisco sits at 53.3 percent for the year.

• No. 15 Navy at No. 10 Syracuse
  Saturday, 2 p.m., ESPN3
  
  The most interesting storyline approaching this much-anticipated matchup at the Carrier Dome? The fact that Navy faceoff man Joe Varello will line up against his brother, Danny, at least once on Saturday. The older brother, Joe, sits 14th nationally with a 59.6 faceoff percentage. Danny Varello is 42nd at 49.8 percent. But you can throw those percentages away when the Varello brothers are fighting for bragging rights. In addition, it’s the first meeting between the Midshipmen and Orange since March of 1983.

It'll be a family affair on Saturday when Danny Varello faces off (literally) against his brother Joe.

Hear what Danny had to say about the unique opportunity pic.twitter.com/tN6wXPbZ3x

— Syracuse Lacrosse (@CuseMLAX) April 20, 2018

• Brown at No. 8 Cornell
  Saturday, 1 p.m., Ivy League Network
  
  In addition to a big Ivy League game for Cornell, the school will honor members of the 1976, 1977 and 1978 Big Red teams over the weekend. They’ll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of lacrosse’s greatest feats — a 42-game winning streak from the start of the 1976 season to the NCAA title game in 1978.

MORE GAMES ON OUR RADAR

All times are listed in ET. For a full list of broadcast games, please visit our US Lacrosse TV listing page, presented by Nationwide.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20

7 p.m.

Binghamton at No. 1 Albany (America East TV)
Marquette at No. 3 Duke (ESPN3)
Army at No. 6 Loyola (CBS Sports Network)
Colgate at Lafayette (Patriot League Network)

7:30 p.m.

No. 19 Lehigh at No. 11 Bucknell (Patriot League Network)

SATURDAY, APRIL 21

12 p.m.

No. 7 Johns Hopkins at Michigan (BTN Plus)
No. 13 Notre Dame at North Carolina (ESPNU / ESPN3)
No. 20 Penn at Dartmouth (Ivy League Network)
Delaware at Towson (TowsonTigers.com)

1 p.m.

No. 3 Denver at Providence (CBS Sports Network)
No. 14 Virginia vs. Vermont (America East TV)
No. 17 Villanova at St. John’s (ESPN3)
No. 18 UMass at Fairfield (Lax Sports Network ($))

2 p.m.

Hofstra at Drexel (Dragons TV)

3 p.m.

NJIT at No. 16 Georgetown (GUHoyas.com)

SUNDAY, APRIL 22

1 p.m.

Ohio State at No. 2 Maryland (ESPNU)