UMass Voted as Preseason Favorite for 2013 CAA Men?s Lacrosse Title
RICHMOND,
Va. (February 1, 2013) - Massachusetts, which captured its first CAA men's
lacrosse championship a year ago, has been picked to win the Colonial Athletic
Association title again in 2013 according to a vote of the league's head
lacrosse coaches.
The
Minutemen received five first-place votes and finished atop the poll with 35
points. Penn State earned two first-place nods and was second with 31 points,
while Drexel and Hofstra tied at third with 22 points apiece. Delaware (16) and
Towson (15) placed at fifth and sixth, respectively, followed by Saint Joseph's.
The league's coaches also selected UMass senior attacker Will Manny as the
CAA's Preseason Player of the Year.
The CAA boasts three of its seven squads in the
Preseason United States States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA)
Top-20, as Massachusetts (12), Penn State (15) and Hofstra (20) were ranked
earlier this week. Drexel and Delaware
received votes in the USILA preseason poll.
Manny, the CAA's 2012 Player of the Year and USILA
first-team All-American, led UMass with 77 points on 44 goals and 33 assists a
year ago. He ranked third nationally in points per game (4.81), eighth in
assists per game (2.75) and ninth in goals per game (2.75). Manny was a
Tewaaraton Award Finalist who notched four game-winners and placed 82.3 percent
of his shots on-frame while posting a 54.3 shot percentage, which was fifth
best in the NCAA. Manny was named CAA Rookie of the Year in 2010 and has earned
All-CAA honors three-straight seasons.
Joining Manny on the preseason All-CAA squad at the
attack position is Drexel's Robert Church and PSU's Jack Forster. Church
finished last season with 29 goals and 18 assists and Forster wrapped up the
2012 season with 27 goals and 15 assists, as both players earned second-team
All-CAA honors.
Hofstra's Adrian Sorichetti, UMass' Colin Fleming and
PSU's Nick Dolik earned spots in the midfield on the preseason All-CAA team. Scorchetti,
a senior for the Pride, scored 24 goals and made 14 assists last season, while
Fleming had a breakout season for the Minutemen scoring 34 points on 26 goals
and eight assists and spearheaded UMass man-advantage unit, notching seven
tallies. Dolik has earned All-CAA second team honors for the past two seasons
and finished last season with 18 goals, four assists for 22 points.
Penn State's Kessler Brown, a junior, earned a spot
on the preseason All-CAA team as the long-stick after tallying 14 groundballs,
giving up just two turnovers, causing 11 and helping PSU lead the league in
caused turnovers (7.93 pg). Hofstra
senior John Antoniades was named the preseason All-CAA faceoff specialist after
ranking 22nd in the country and fourth in the conference in face-off
winning percentage a year ago (.540). He was also second in the CAA and 18th
in the nation in ground balls per game with 75 for a 5.36 average.
Four defensemen were honored this preseason, as three
earned postseason All-CAA honors in 2012. Hofstra's Mark Mullen, Towson's John
Fennessy and UMass' Jake Smith and Ryan Hollenbaugh earned preseason honors.
Smith recorded 28 groundballs and added 11 caused turnovers and teamed up with
Hollenbaugh, who tallied 25 groundballs and 12 caused turnovers, to help UMass
hold opponents to just 7.19 goals per game, the third-lowest total in the NCAA
last season. Mullen grabbed 16
groundballs for the Pride, while Fennessy helped the Tigers' defense with 18
groundballs and 14 caused turnovers during his sophomore season.
Penn State junior goalkeeper Austin Kaut, a two-time
All-CAA honoree and 2011 CAA Rookie of the Year, is the league's preseason
goalkeeper. Kaut protected the Nittany Lion's cage with a league second-best
.584 save percentage and recorded a 7.93 goals-against average over 15 games in
earning USILA All-America second team honors.
All
three games of the CAA Men's Lacrosse Championship will be held at the
highest-seed in 2013 with semifinals set for May 3 and the title contest to be
held on May 5. These dates are flexible based on the host's facility availability
and updates will be announced on CAASports.com.
2013 CAA MEN'S LACROSSE PRESEASON
COACHES POLL
First place votes in parenthesis
|
1.
|
Massachusetts
|
35 (5)
|
|
2.
|
Penn State
|
31 (2)
|
|
3.
|
Drexel
|
22
|
| |
Hofstra
|
22
|
|
5.
|
Delaware
|
16
|
|
6.
|
Towson
|
15
|
|
7.
|
Saint Joseph's
|
6
|
2013
PRESEASON ALL-CAA MEN'S LACROSSE TEAM
Name, School Pos. Class Hometown/High School
Robert Church, Drexel# A Sr. Coquitlam, B.C./Charles Best
Jack Forster, Penn State# A R-Sr. Jenkintown,
Pa./La Salle College HS
Will Manny, Massachusetts* A Sr. Massapequa,
N.Y./St. Anthony's
Nick Dolik, Penn State M Sr. Bloomfield Hills,
Mich./Brother Rice
Colin Fleming, Massachusetts M Sr. Bryn Mawr, Pa./St. Joseph's
Prep
Adrian Sorichetti, Hofstra* M Sr. Whitby, Onterio, Canada/All
Saints/Trinity Pawling
Kessler Brown, Penn State LSM Jr. Springfield,
Va./West Springfield
John Antoniades, Hofstra# FO Spec. Sr. Hauppauge,
N.Y./St. Anthony's
John Fennessy, Towson# D Jr. Yorktown
Heights, N.Y./Yorktown
Ryan Hollenbaugh, Massachusetts# D Sr. Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury
Mark Mullen, Hofstra# D Gr. Harleysville, Pa./Germantown
Academy
Jake Smith, Massachusetts D Sr. Medfield,
Mass./Medfield
Austin Kaut, Penn State* GK Jr. Morton,
Pa./Springfield-Delco
CAA MEN'S LACROSSE PRESEASON PLAYERS OF THE YEAR: Will
Manny, A, Sr., Massachusetts
* -- First Team All-CAA Selection in 2012
# -- Second Team All-CAA Selection in 2012