Men’s Lacrosse Ranked #10

Don’t look now, but Penn State’s men’s lacrosse team is pretty good. With the excitement of the wrestling team working its way through another fantastic season, plus the ever-dramatic men’s basketball team, the early success of the lacrosse team has flown mostly under the radar.

The team began the season at the beginning of February, defeating Robert Morris 15-11 at home, before traveling to play Hobart in upper New York, a 21-15 victory. After these two early wins, the Lions’ competition got a bit more fierce this past weekend, when Cornell came to town. Behind 48 shots - 34 of which were on goal - Penn State’s offensive flurry downed Big Red 20-10. This marks just the second time in program history that the team has scored 20 or more goals in consecutive games, the last such streak coming in 1983.

Notably, Penn State is currently riding a wave of young talent to its fast start (sound familiar?). Freshman Mac O’Keefe and sophomore Grant Ament currently lead the team with 19 points each. Several other freshmen, including goalie Colby Kneese and defenseman TJ Connelan are also pitching in for the youth movement. Of the 10 starters, just four are seniors.

With the win, Penn State finds itself 3-0 and ranked #10 in the country, according to Inside Lacrosse. Up next, the Lions travel to take on pesky Villanova, who currently has a three-game win streak against PSU. The week after, a clash with #20 Penn is on the docket, and blue blood Harvard also awaits in the non-conference schedule.

Once conference play begins, the Lions can look forward to playing #1 Maryland, #4 Johns Hopkins, and #15 Rutgers. Just for good measure, Michigan is also sitting in the “receiving votes” category. It won’t be an easy season in B1G lacrosse, but what better way to test one’s mettle than to take on the best?

Regardless of how the season goes, the Lions are off to a fantastic start, and will be an entertaining team to watch for the rest of the season.