Last season, Penn State's offense was a force to be reckoned with. The team's goals per game average (11.87), shooting percentage (.343) and total assists (106) all ranked among the top 15 in the NCAA and the top three in the Big Ten. PSU's 34.3 percent shooting ranked sixth in the nation and best in the Big Ten, while their assist and scoring averages were 12th and 15th in Division 1, respectively.
Penn State also boasted one of the nation's most efficient man-up units. The team converted on 51.6 percent of it's extra-man opportunities, leading the Big Ten and ranking fourth in the nation.
The Nittany Lions saw plenty of conference and national recognition during last season's campaign.
Mike Aronow also got a All-Big Ten honorable mention nod, while leading the team with 13 caused turnovers.
Senior TJ Sanders was named a USILA Scholar All-America selection before being drafted by the National Lacrosse League's Buffalo Bandits. Fellow classmate Tommy O'Neill was one of 66 Division I seniors invited to play in the annual USILA North-South game.
But for Penn State men's lacrosse, it seems the best may be yet to come.
"There’s a great deal of chemistry coming into this season, and as coaches we’ve been able to sort of step back a little bit," head coach Jeff Tambroni told reporters on spring sports media day. "This group is very mature, especially in the offensive end. There’s just a lot of veterans... and it’s allowed them to have a lot more creativity. It’s allowed our coaching staff to maybe step back a little more and allow these guys to take the reigns as leaders and they’ve done just that."
Penn State returns its entire starting midfield unit, with seniors Dan Craig, Matt Florence and Mike Sutton leading the way. The trio combined for 51 goals in 2016.
Coach Tambroni has cited this team as being one of the deeper rosters the program has had as of late.
"We have a lot of depth through the midfield, especially the offensive midfield, so we’ve tried to really pick up the pace and pick up the tempo and get guys out a little bit quicker. This year it’s a little more analogous to hockey in the way that they’re in and out. It’s not going to be a 30-second shift and get guys out, but we want to see guys get in and utilize a higher tempo and a higher pace from defense to offense. We feel like we’ve got seven or eight guys at the midfield who can play at a regular clip and now four to five attackmen that can do the same thing."
The Nittany Lions defense sees no turnover this season, as all three of the teams starters from the 2016 season come back to action for the 2017 campaign. The defense rallies around senior Peter Triolo, whom Tambroni has cited as having a strong vision and presence in the Nittany Lions' defensive end.
The faceoff unit returns last season's primary midfielder in Billy Lombardi, while adding a pair of freshmen in Gerard Arceri and Nick McEvoy who will push for time at the "X". Senior Drake Kreinz also returns after sustaining an injury last season.
Familiar faces in last year's starting goalie Will Schreiner along with Hunter Pearl and Trevor Scollins all rejoin Penn State's core between the pipes. Freshmen Colby Kneese and Jack Rusbuldt join the Nittany Lions as well.
Tambroni is optimistic of the group's consistency. "The carry-over was incredible. I think the retention level and the attention to detail that our upperclassmen have has filtered down and carried over to the younger guys. We haven’t wasted time, we’ve been very efficient in practice for the most part as we’ve come into the spring. That’s allowed us to work on a lot of different things and not have to constantly go back over what we would consider the basics. It takes time to develop but I give these guys a lot of credit. They’ve really taken a different track this year. It just feels like a very professional approach and the focus seems to be very sharp."
Penn State begins the regular season on February 4 against Robert Morris, with the hopes of making this season its best yet.
Credits:
Mark Selders / Penn State Athletics