McDaniel preview
This entry is the second in a series taking a look at each of the seven Division III programs in this state according to their order of finish from last season. The Sun’s lacrosse preview is slated to be published on Thursday, Feb. 17. Today is McDaniel’s turn.
Overview: In what is becoming a routine habit, the Green Terror finished in the top four of the Centennial Conference and qualified for the league tournament. But the team failed to advance out of the tournament semifinals for the second year in a row. This year’s objective is aimed at taking that next step, and with 38 of 44 players returning from last spring’s roster, the program appears well-armed to be competitive again. But can McDaniel elbow its way past No. 6 Haverford, No. 7 Gettysburg and No. 15 Dickinson to capture the tournament crown?
Reason for optimism: The Green Terror bid farewell to only one starter, but that starter was Gibbs Preston, an attackman who posted 23 goals and 26 assists last season. Coach Matt Hatton is quick to say that no one person will replace Preston, but Hatton is optimistic that the trio of juniors J.S. Duke and Ben Yancheski, a transfer from CCBC-Essex, and sophomore Zach Woods can make contributions and help junior D.J. Rickels (42, 10). “I don’t know that we have one person that is going to be as capable of putting up as many points as Gibbs, but I feel like we’ve got two guys that we’re looking at real hard right now to play alongside D.J.,” Hatton said, referring to Duke and Yancheski. “Kind of like last year when D.J. was emerging as a playmaker for us, Gibbs took a lot of that pressure off of him. I’m hoping that with D.J. making that transition into being one of our central players, he can take some of the pressure off of some of the other guys that are going to fill that void.”
Reason for pessimism: The net featured a rotation of sophomores Brad Motley (9.72 goals-against average and .500 save percentage) and Ty Wittelsberger (8.08 goals-against average and .529 save percentage) as each goalie made seven starts. Hatton said that duo is once again competing for the starting role, but he would like to avoid another rotation. “The goal for us between now and next Tuesday [when the team opens the season against Montclair at home] – it would be great if we could figure it out between now and tomorrow – is to find the guy that’s going to give us the best chance and play that guy,” Hatton said. “I would never go into a season hoping to rotate, but I think last year, given the circumstances of how we started and how our defense player early, that gave us the best opportunity to win, and we got a lot of good games out of Ty and Brad last spring. We have Ty and Brad battling right now.”
Keep an eye on: McDaniel returns two starting defensemen, but much of the focus is on how to replace starting short-stick defensive midfielders Kyle Hadden and Anthony Falgares. Hatton said sophomore Michael Marks, who was No. 3 SSDM last year, and junior face-off specialist Matt Dean are expected to start. But Hatton also said that other players would be asked to contribute. “Given the fact that we pretty much bring back all of our offensive middies and some of those guys are pretty athletic, I think some of those guys are going to have responsibilities on the defense end as well,” he said. “We’re not going to play our first line all game and ask them to play defense obviously, but some guys are going to have a little more of a role on defense than they’ve had in years past.”
What he said: With eight of the team’s top nine scorers back and the top seven offensive midfielders, Hatton dismissed the notion that the program is in the midst of a rebuilding campaign. “If anything, last year was more of a rebuilding year than this year,” he said. “We started a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year, and they’re now sophomores and juniors. They’ve got another year of being battle-tested in what I refer to as the best conference in the country in the Centennial. We really only lost three guys that made an actual impact on game day. They were three valuable guys, but we’ve got a lot of guys back. So I wouldn’t refer to this as a rebuilding year at all.”
