2006 Upstate NY college lacrosse preview/info

[SDS416]

Well, the 2006 College lacrosse season is almost upon us here in WNY. RIT opens at home less than an month from today, so it seems appropriate to provide some previews/info for the teams.

E8 Conference:

RIT- Is this RIT's last season in the E8? Possible. With the talk around Rochester that RIT will go DI across the board in all sports in 2007 or 2008 this could be the last hurrah in DIII for the Tigers. 2 new additions to the coaching staff for this season indicates a strong commitment by the school to a program that has grown over the past few years. They started slow last seson, dropping some early games, only to come on strong, upsetting Naz late in the season, and winning the ECAC Upstate championship, after losing in the E8 tourny semis. The Tigers only lost 4 players from last years squad to graduation and look to be in fine form to challenge for the E8 regular season title and maybe an NCAA bid. See the link for schedules and an updated roster when it becomes available.

http://www.ritathletics.com/index.asp?path=mlax&tab=mens

Nazareth- Well, the traditional power, with alot of returning firepower. All American Ryan Hotaling returns for his Jr. season, with star goalie Alex Civialier returning in net. Naz has a nice recruit class of 8 freshman that fill some gaps. The question will be the D. There is no question that offense will be plentiful. Naz has struggled on D the past few seasons and that will be the question mark. A home opener with Springfield should provide some early insight as to where this team stands within DIII. As always they will contend for the E8 title and a NCAA berth, but as Hotaling goes, so will Naz.

See link for 2006 roster and schedule:

http://www.naz.edu/dept/athletics/lacrosse/mens/index.html

St. John Fisher- The building continues at SJFC. Coach Craig Camp left after the 2005 season to become an assistant at RIT and John Johnson has taken over the program. Johnson leaves Canandaigua Academy, a noted high school lacrosse power in Upstate NY, after 26 seasons to take his first college head coaching position. Johnson will depend on preseaon all american PJ Burns to lead the squad. A 4year starter and 3 year captain, he returns to a squad that went 5-2 in its last 7 last season (losses to Naz and RIT) and finished at 6-7 overall, barely missing out on appearing in the E8 tourney. This team could suprise alot of people as the season goes on and I think may qualify for the E8 tourney this season.

See link for Roster and schedule:

http://www.sjfc.edu/athletics/mlacrosse.asp?Key=mlax_show

Look for an update/preview of SUNYAC and JUCO teams here tomorrow.

[Liv4LaX]

cant wait for the JUCO preview....if you can, can you include MVCC?

[SDS416]

I'll try to include some MVCC info, not sure how much I will have for you. I do have a friend whose son appears to have made the team so I will give him a call and see what he can tell me.

[jmplax31]

Very nice SDS. Good to see you back. Hopefully I'll see you at a game.

[SDS416]

Very nice SDS. Good to see you back. Hopefully I'll see you at a game.


Thanks. Its good to be back. Things are going well, just started a new job which will allow me quite a bit of freedom to enjoy lacrosse again. Still a bit away from being able to play at all, but looking forward to the season starting up again. I was able to get out to some fall ball back in the fall, but was still far from 100% at that point.
I actually am thinking of getting a stick together and playing some wall ball if the weather stays nice again for a few days. I have a perfect wall behind my office.

The remainder of the DIII, JUCO and DI preview will arrive this weekend, so stay tuned.

[SDS416]

SUNYAC Conference preview:

SUNY Brockport- Brockport should return a majority of the starters from a squad that struggled to a 2-4 conference record last season and a 6-7 overall mark. The 2006 roster is not released yet, so its difficult to figure out exactly how much they lost in the off season depth wise, or gained through incoming freshman. They open with 5 straight on the road, including Washington and Jefferson and close with 6 straight conference games.

SUNY Geneseo- They were nice enough to do the work for me. See this link for a nice, in depth preview of their 2006 season. Geneseo will likely challenge Cortland St. for the SUNYAC crown and comes into the season ranked in the top 20.

http://knights.geneseo.edu/preview.php?pv=mlacrosse/preview.html&pg=mlacrosse

SUNY Oswego- Probably will be another cold, long spring on the lake for the lax program. Unfortunately the lax program is simply not a priority there and don't look for that to change anytime soon. Oswego struggled in SUNYAC play and their most inspired performance of the season came in a OT loss to RIT at Oswego. Probably headed for the SUNYAC basement this season.

http://www.oswego.edu/athletics/teams/mens_lacrosse/index.html

SUNY Cortland- A certain top 5 program in my mind, and a serious contender to make it to Philly on Memorial day weekend. A sudden off season coaching move sees Rich Barnes take over a program that spent most of last season in the nations top 10 (finished 17-2 and lost in the NCAA quarterfinals) and I don't see the coaching change having any serious impact on this coming season. A strong non-confernece schedule should prepare this team for a run deep into the spring.

http://www.cortland.edu/athletics/mlacrosse/

[SDS416]

Okay the JUCO preview:

MCC- The Tribunes lose a ton of players this season. The backbone of the team Brian Hondorf (goalie) moved on to SUNY Potsdam. They also lose 7 or 8 of their top 10 point getters from last season. They lose 2 starting poles from last season as well. May be a bit of a rebuilding year for them this season. They play a tough schedule that should get the younger players a bit of experience for a run next season. As for this season, they are among the top 6 or 7 JUCO programs but the drop off beyond them is such that they would have a hard time dropping that far.

OCC- They enjoyed a tremendous season last year. Upsetting eventual national champ Herkimer. They lose the best player at the X I have ever seen in Needle, who won FO's at an astounding 96% last season. He supposedly was headed to Naz but apparently is not on their roster. Rumor has it he is sitting a year and headed to SU next fall. This will be a very strong squad again, with alot of returning talent. Probably will wind up being a dogfight between them and Herk for the JUCO national championship.

MVCC- (BY REQUEST)- I initially wasn't going to post their preview, as I have little or no regular contact or opportunity to see them but through a friend was able to find a tad bit of info. In a word, young. A very young squad with less than a dozen players returning from last years team. They are working hard to recruit new players and the program seems to be headed in the right direction, but is a ways from competing with the elite programs like Herk, OCC, etc. Fall ball was not apparently kind to them results wise and last seasons 27 goal loss to Herk seemed to shock a few people but I think things are coming around from the sounds of things.

[Sanchez]

Hey your oswego preview is outdated, you used the preview from last year, this years preveiw isnt up because theres no finalized roster, should be up within a few weeks from now.

[SDS416]

Hey your oswego preview is outdated, you used the preview from last year, this years preveiw isnt up because theres no finalized roster, should be up within a few weeks from now.


My comments were my own personal observations, the link I provided was simply the link to the Oswego homepage, which hasn't been updated in sometime.
As for the rest of my comments about Oswego, it seems as though I repeat the same things every year. And BTW Oswego's best effort was clearly versus RIT last season, any other day of the year they would have been lucky to keep it to less than a 10 goal loss.

[Sanchez]

Listen, i play for oswego, my problem is you saying theres less then a dozen returning players, that was last year. Thats why i commented on your preview being outdated. Only graduating 1 senior starter from last year, team comes back this year with something to prove after a very dismal season.

[SDS416]

Listen, i play for oswego, my problem is you saying theres less then a dozen returning players, that was last year. Thats why i commented on your preview being outdated. Only graduating 1 senior starter from last year, team comes back this year with something to prove after a very dismal season.

Enjoy the SUNYAC basement. Sorry to say it, but lax is a second class sport on that campus, hockey is king there. Its been a long time since Oswego has managed to field a competitive squad. If you feel like your team has the chance to turn it around, more power to you, but I saw 3 of your games last season and aside from RIT leaving you in 1 of them far longer than they should of I didn't see anything to make me think that this season will be any better than last. Send Cortland a Christmas card because they could have scored 40 on you if they had even tried. The topper was the mail it in performance against Brockport.
And exactly how many guys did you lose after fall ball? Word around Rochester was that you lost at least 3 starters (1 pole, and 2 middies) and that 2 transfers that you expected did not come in for the 2nd semester. True? Not true? Partially true?

[Sanchez]

After last season i have no legs to stand on to defend your opinions. If you are really interested in what the squad looks like we can talk this out over private messaging, but i dont see how its anyones business but our own as of right now. Thank you for editing your original message and ill be more then happy to deliberate on what really happened with transfers and returning starters.