Penn State Men’s Lacrosse Preview vs. Lafayette
The Penn State men’s lacrosse team returns for the 2023 season and are set to kick off their season this Saturday at Panzer Stadium. This will be the second season in a row that the blue and white start their season in State College.
The Nittany Lions ended their season last year 3-11, losing seven of their last eight games. All three of those wins game on their home turf, winning only one of their five conference games.
Penn State will take on Lafayette in its home opener, a team that they defeated last year 20-15. The Nittany Lions shot the stickball 52 times, 20 shots on goal, with 10 saves and 21 faceoffs won.
This will be the third time that the Nittany Lions take on the Leopards in program history. The blue and white lead the all-time series 2-0 with all games being held at Panzer Stadium.
Patrick Myers is heading into his fifth year at the wheel for the Lafayette Leopards. The Leopards went 4-11 last year with three of their wins coming from road games.
Penn State head coach Jeff Tambroni, the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2019, returns for his 13th year with the Nittany Lions. Coming off his worst season at Penn State, Tambroni will seek to get the team back to the same level of play they had in 2019.
The level of play that Tambroni is looking for may get a boost from the 11 players that the Nittany Lions signed over the offseason. Out of the 11 players, five are midfielders, three of them are defense, one is attacking, one is face-off and the other is a goalie.
The blue and white also inked assistant coach Joe Bucci, who spent six seasons at UMBC where he built one of the best defensive units in the country. That should be very helpful for the Nittany Lions who had the 15th-worst scoring defense in the NCAA last year.
Will Peden comes back for his sophomore campaign after leading the team in scoring his freshman year. Peden started 12 of his 14 games played where he recorded 11 goals and 22 assists.
Jack Fracyon and Aleric Fyock both return at goalie for the Nittany Lions. Fracyon started the final three games of the season for Penn State in 2021 after Aleric Fyock started the first 11.
Penn State will prepare to shut down Peter Lehman, who led Lafayette with 34 goals and 21 assists. The blue and white will also look to get around the Leopards sophomore goalie who allowed 13.14 goals a game.
Both teams will look to change the trajectory of their programs with a hot start in freezing temperatures on Saturday.
Micheal Bolger is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mpb6233@psu.edu.
