Even though there is still more than a foot of snow on the ground, the Marquette Men’s Lacrosse team is getting ready to start their conference season. Although the weather has been a deterrent to practicing outside, as freshman Carl Anderson said, “You just have to deal with it.”The team opens their year this weekend against nationally ranked Illinois. The team is looking to build off of their fall season during which they ended strong and really came together in their last tournament.
Marquette returns basically the same team from their fall season but this semester the team is much healthier. Marquette also returns reigning coach of the year Panchito Ojeda and second team all conference member Andrew Weber.
Marquette is one of seven teams in the UMLL conference which is part of a Division I league of around 100 teams around the nation. The Lacrosse team has 14 new members which makes them very young. Among them is Anderson.
Anderson joined the team because he has been playing lacrosse since he was 10 years old. He also wanted to be a part of a team that was dedicated to winning.
It is this enthusiasm and dedication on the part of the 14 freshmen that has led seniors Andy Hunt and Adam Caccamise to believe that this is the most talented freshman class that they have seen in their four years on the team.
Hunt, one of five seniors on the team, said that he was “more excited for this year than any other in my four year career. We work hard, but also have a lot of fun.”
Hunt and Caccamise have been on the team since their freshman year. While having five seniors on the team does not sound like much, it is rare for the team to have more than a couple seniors because most players do not stay with the team all four years.
The leadership of the five seniors along with a talented freshman class should give Marquette one of its best seasons in recent memory.
The Marquette Men’s Lacrosse season will be highlighted by back to back games April 4 and 5 against University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and then University of Minnesota at Valley Fields. The April 4th match will be played at 7 p.m. under the lights and the April 5th game is scheduled for 3 p.m. The team always looks forward to their home games because they are so few and far between and because of the great crowd support that comes along with the event.
An estimated 500 fans packed into Valley Fields to watch a home game last year. This season Marquette only has those two home games on their schedule, so they are expecting an even larger crowd this year.
One other highlight of the season will be a spring break trip to the Carolinas and Georgia where the team will face off against Georgia Tech, The University of South Carolina and Wake Forrest. Marquette will also travel to St. Paul in April to play conference foe and 4th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth. While Marquette is not nationally ranked, they did receive votes in the poll this year, something that they have not received in seven years. The team was picked to finished 3rd in conference.
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