Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Has High Hopes as 2008 Season Begins Saturday at No. 2 Duke
2/13/2008 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 13, 2008
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Armed with key returnees in every unit, the 15th-ranked Bucknell men's lacrosse team opens the 2008 season on Saturday at reigning national finalist and second-ranked Duke.
Game time is 1 p.m. at Koskinen Field, and a live video Webcast of the contest can be purchased through ACC Select.
The Blue Devils went 17-3 last season, including a 12-11 loss to Johns Hopkins in the national championship game. Duke returns eight starters from that team, including two of the nation's top scorers in Matt Danowski and Zach Greer, who combined for 190 points in 2007.
Optimism is high at Bucknell as well. The Bison have earned their highest-ever preseason ranking, and return the Patriot League Rookie of the Year, the league's top goal scorer and the national leader in save percentage and goals-against average.
Click HERE for a complete list of Bucknell's preseason accolades.
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The Bison men's lacrosse team has participated in three Patriot League Tournaments since the league went to a postseason format for the first time in 2004, and each time they have suffered an agonizing one-goal defeat in the semifinals. With most of the nucleus returning from last year's 11-4 team, third-year head coach Frank Fedorjaka feels that his Bucknell squad is perhaps a few plays away from realizing its championship dream.
"We need to do everything just a little bit better," said Fedorjaka, "and play our best lacrosse at the end of the year in the Patriot League Tournament. We have almost all of our key players back, and we have some good young guys to add into the mix. We expect a lot this year, but we know we have to work for everything. I think our team is in a really good place right now in terms of being humble and knowing what it is going to take to get to the next level."
Offensively, Bucknell returns six of its top seven scorers and 119 of its 137 goals from a year ago. Freshmen sensations Austin Winter (20-29-49) and Tim Brandau (27-10-37) were the team's top two scorers in 2007. Winter was one of the highest scoring rookies in the country last season and earned Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors.
The 2006 PL Rookie of the Year, Joe Mele, had 24 goals in nine games last year before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Navy game. He finished as the league leader in goals per game, and after sitting out fall ball while rehabbing the knee, Mele expects to be 100 percent by the time the 2008 campaign kicks off at Duke on Feb. 16.
Fedorjaka also predicts that freshman Mike Danylyshyn will see plenty of action at attack this spring.
Senior Nick Marks (7-3-10) is the most experienced Bison in the offensive midfield, having played in all 42 games over the last three seasons. He is joined by returning starters Perry Menzies (19-1-20), a Second Team All-Patriot League pick last year, and John Togneri (7-7-14), both juniors. Junior Doug Buckley and senior John Schlicher will also be on the field quite a bit.
Defensively, the Bison will be hard-pressed to match last season's performance on defense, although in the competitive Patriot League, they will likely need similar results. Bucknell ranked second nationally in goals against in 2007, yielding only 6.3 goals per game. Junior goalie Nick Sciubba returns after leading the nation in both goals-against average (6.24) and save percentage (.641) last season.
First Team All-Patriot Leaguer Billy Haire and senior Evan Burns anchor the close defense unit, with junior Tom Izard and sophomore Scott Monfort the leading candidates to replace the graduated Greg Sowyrda as the third defenseman.
Bucknell is also deep and experienced in the defensive midfield. Senior Tommy Orr has been a regular long-pole since day one, and highly regarded freshman Alex Lyons will step in there, as well as on close defense. Senior Mark Lane heads a talented group of short-stick defensive middies, with junior Michael Cooke and seniors Patrick Keeney and Andrew Goodhand sure to see plenty of action.
One area the Bison continue to work on is the faceoff game, which has been a source of concern for the last few seasons. Senior Rick Carolan became a full-time faceoff specialist last year and won 47.9 percent of his draws. As a team, however, the Bison picked up only 42.3 percent, which makes their defensive numbers all the more impressive considering the opponent won the time-of-possession battle most of the time. The addition of promising freshman Christian Tucker could give them a jolt at the X. Tucker won more than 70 percent of his faceoffs over the last two seasons at Hunterdon Central High School in New Jersey.
"Faceoffs have been our biggest focus during the offseason," said Fedorjaka. "We have worked a lot on different faceoff techniques and game-planning. We are going to change a lot of what we have done in terms of technique and personnel. We feel like if we can fix that part of our game, it is going to make us a lot better."
In 2007 many pundits dubbed Bucknell the "Baby Bison," referencing the large crop of first and second-year players in the starting lineup. Those youngsters are a year older now, and Fedorjaka himself now has three years worth of growth in his own system.
"Our guys know the system better, both offensively and defensively, which gives us a lot more options," Fedorjaka noted. "We have a layer of veterans who can teach the younger players, so it's been a lot easier in that sense. We feel like we will have the ability to be more flexible on offense, be more aggressive on offense and a little more aggressive in our transition game. We want to try to score more goals, but keep the defense the same. That's hard to do if you're going to pick up the tempo."
Bucknell will be tested early and often by a schedule that Fedorjaka has ratcheted up a notch with the addition of road games at Duke and Towson. The Bison also host Ohio State and Fairfield, travel to Penn State and play a neutral-site game against Hobart.
"That will give us an opportunity to play at our highest level, and hopefully will prepare us well for the Patriot League," said Fedorjaka. "The Patriot League has improved top to bottom every year, and this might be the toughest it's ever been. Every league game is going to be a war. Our first goal is certainly to get into the four-team tournament, which is not easy to do, then we would like to finish as the No. 1 seed and host the tournament on our campus in front of our fans."
