The 2019 NCAA lacrosse season has finally come. Along with the brisk winds, the start of a new season of lacrosse is sweeping across the nation. This is the most exciting time of the year for college lacrosse news, players, and coaches coming back for another shot at greatness. Everyone is trying to make their name known in the game of college lacrosse forever. Players trained all offseason, and now it’s time to show everyone who put in the work. College lacrosse players all are probably just finishing up their “hell week,” and only the strong will survive. Expect to see the greatest teamwork out of the squad that had the roughest “hell week,” because it brings a team together as a unit, ready to attack.
Starting the 2019 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Season
By now, college lacrosse teams are in a groove of in-season meetings, practices, and strength and conditioning training. Like every other year, a lot of great players have graduated and moved on from NCAA men’s lacrosse. That only means a ton of room for rising stars to take over and become the new leaders on their squads. Unlike the olden days, freshmen are making a bigger impact than ever on the field even by just by pushing the older players in competition. Lacrosse has grown rapidly, and the growing skill level of younger players shows it. Who will be the new freshman star that Tehoka Nanticoke was last year? Will we see a title repeat, as Yale brings back a lot of talent along with gaining a ton. Everyone will also get to experiment and make their opinions known once we get to see the few new rules in place.
NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship Preview
Every year is anyone’s year in NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse as we have had 9 different champions in the past 12 years. Many teams will make strong pushes to win the first title in their school’s history, although, it will definitely be tough to knock off the defending champion Yale Bulldogs. They added the best faceoff man in the country, TD Ierlan, and some very impressive incoming freshmen. They are the preseason number 1, not that the preseason rankings ever mean anything except motivation for every other team. Of course, Yale lost superstar Ben Reeves, but they keep last year’s tournament star, Matt Gaudet. I expect him to pour in the goals this year and pick up where Reeves left off.
NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Teams to Watch
While bringing back a scrappy and young squad, Virginia had a great recruiting offseason landing 4 of the top 25 incoming freshmen. They are my preseason favorite to win it all, and I think they have all the tools on a very deep roster.
Another team I expect to do well this year is Johns Hopkins. They did lose some great talent, and a lot of points on the scoreboard, from Tinney and
Notre Dame always looks to have solid runs but they recently took a huge hit as Ryder Garnsey was deemed academically ineligible and out for the season. A very silly mistake out of the young man, but hopefully this shows any other players out there that it is still student first, then athlete second.
NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Season Expectations
The college season is all about runs and ups and downs. In every game, and throughout the whole season, whoever can string together the most consistency, but also get hot when they need it, will be the last one standing in May. Whoever can last through the adversity for a couple minutes, or for a stretch of 4 games. It’s always a long season, but all that matters is that you get can get that extra boost of energy when you need it most and do your best to stay healthy.
Games are already starting as soon as February 1st, and the following months will take a toll on every team. This is is their chance to get in the record books, but your chance to learn from the best. So make sure you have lots of room on your DVRs to get every game recorded. Try to watch as much lacrosse as possible so you can be the best player on the field this season.
Stringers Society Presents Pauly’s Preview
My preseason top performers this season are Jeff Teat, Ethan Walker, Brent Noseworthy, Michael Kraus, Michael Sowers, Pat Spencer, and Gerard Arceri. They are all phenomenal players and real fun to watch. A few other great games early in the year you should make sure you see are Villanova at Penn State Feb. 2nd, Virginia at Loyola Feb. 9th, and on Feb. 16th we got Denver at Duke, Maryland at Penn, Villanova at Yale, and Albany at Syracuse. There’s a lot of good action to start off the season, and it only gets better from here. Time to see some sick highlight
Stringer Society Presents Pauly’s Preseason Top 10
- Yale
- Maryland
- Cornell
- Virginia
- Duke
- Loyola
- Johns Hopkins
- Syracuse
- Denver
- Penn State
