Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lacrosse Has High Hopes in 2009
2/11/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 11, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Lacrosse season officially launches for Bucknell on Saturday, and a difficult early season schedule begins with a road test against sixth-ranked Duke, a Final Four particpant a year ago. The game is set to begin at noon at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Bucknell is ranked 18th by Inside Lacrosse and 20th in the USILA Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Bison were also picked third, behind Colgate and Navy, in the Patriot League preseason poll.
Duke finished 18-2 last season, falling by a 10-9 count to Johns Hopkins in the national semifinals. While John Danowski's squad must replace All-American's Matt Danowski and Zach Greer, who tallied 97 and 95 points, respectively, in 2008, the Blue Devils still figure to have plenty of firepower. Midfielder Ned Crotty is an Inside Lacrosse Preseason First Team All-American, while returning 60-goal-scorer Max Quinzani and faceoff specialist Sam Payton both garnered second team recognition.
The Bison return all but two starters from a 2008 squad that was ranked as high as No. 9 in the nation, won 10 games and made it all the way to the Patriot League championship game. Bucknell returns 93 percent of its offensive production (118 of 127 goals), has seniors entrenched at every position on the field, and has two preseason All-Americans, just to add a bit of star power. But for head coach Frank Fedorjaka, there is still one key area separating a very good team from becoming an elite, NCAA Tournament-bound program. That missing piece has been the faceoff game, and Bucknell trained much of its offseason attention toward improving at the X.
"By far our biggest focus for 2009 has been at faceoff," said Fedorjaka, who is entering his fourth season as Bucknell's head coach. The Bison managed a 10-5 record, including four wins over nationally ranked teams, despite winning only 44.0 percent of their draws. The faceoff issue cost them last season in a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss at Navy (4 of 11 at the X), a killer 8-7 loss at Penn State late in the year (7 of 19) and in the Patriot League championship game against Colgate (6 of 26).
Entering the spring Fedorjaka feels much better about Bucknell's faceoff game. The program added an assistant coach in former Cornell staffer Eric Genova, whose primary focus is the faceoff game. Sophomore faceoff specialist Christian Tucker has a full year under his belt, Fedorjaka recruited another strong FOGO in freshman Matt Albert and the team now has some depth at the X to match up with an opponent.
"We spent about 30 minutes a day in the fall working on faceoffs, and that's a large chunk of practice time," said Fedorjaka, whose team played preseason No. 2 Virginia to a 3-3 tie in a two-quarter scrimmage last weekend. "As much talent as we have in the program, the faceoff area was costing us games. Eric has been doing a terrific job and has brought a renewed commitment to that position."
Remarkably, the Bison were able to overcome that time-of-possession disadvantage and have an outstanding year thanks once again to a terrific defense. Annually one of the stingiest teams in the game, Bucknell allowed only 7.7 goals per game in 2008.
Senior defenseman Billy Haire is a major reason for that success. An Inside Lacrosse Preseason Honorable Mention All-American and the Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Haire is a two-time All-Patriot League selection who has never missed a start in his career. Classmate Tom Izard also comes back as a starter after a very successful 2008 season, while sophomores John Collett and Alex Lyons are vying for the other close defense spot vacated by Evan Burns, one of the team's few key graduation losses.
Behind that outstanding group of defensemen are two senior goalies in Nick Sciubba and Matt Antonelli. Sciubba has been a Second Team All-Patriot League choice in both of his seasons at Bucknell after transferring in from UMass. In 2007 he led the nation in both save percentage (.641) and goals-against average (6.24), and even though his numbers dipped a bit last year, he is still one of the best stoppers in the game. Antonelli spotted Sciubba a handful of times last season and was spectacular in both the 4-3 overtime loss to Navy and the 8-7 win over Army in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals.
The Bison are also once again very deep at defensive midfield. At short-stick d-middie, Mark Lane, who was perhaps the best player on the team in the 2008 postseason, has graduated, but there is still a talented group headed by elusive senior Michael Cooke. Senior John Togneri, who has also played attack and offensive middie at Bucknell, makes a similar move to Lane's and goes back to the defensive midfield this season. Sophomore Jake Clarke returns after really coming on strong at the end of last season, and Bison fans should also keep an eye on impressive freshman Andrew Van Valkenburg.
The top pole will be steady junior Scott Monfort, with senior Will Pickel and fast-rising freshman Jason Neithamer also in the mix.
"As always, we are very focused on the defensive end," said Fedorjaka, who was the team's longtime defensive coordinator before taking over as head coach. "If we can play excellent defense again that will always keep us in games against the long list of outstanding teams on our schedule."
Offensively, Bucknell returns all of its key parts, led by 2008 Honorable Mention All-American Austin Winter. The junior attackman has scored a point in all 30 career games, and he already has 101 in his career. The first player in program history to earn first team all-conference honors as both a freshman and sophomore, Winter had 19 goals and 33 assists for 52 points last season. He led the Patriot League in both points and assists per game, and he ranked No. 2 nationally in assists, trailing only Duke All-American Matt Danowski.
The Bison are hardly a one-man show up front, though. Senior Joe Mele has come all the way back from a serious knee injury that cut short his sophomore campaign, and Mele has 75 career goals on his resume. Junior Tim Brandau has scored 27 and 29 goals in his first two collegiate seasons and has become one of the Patriot League's top finishers.
Toss in good-looking freshman Charlie Streep and sophomore Ryan Klipstein (11 goals as a rookie), both of whom could also play midfield, and Bucknell will have plenty of options around the crease.
Seniors Perry Menzies and Doug Buckley are the most experienced members of a strong midfield unit. Menzies, who scored the game-winner in the Patriot League semifinals against Army last year, has 30 goals over the last two seasons and 36 total, and he still possesses one of the hardest outside shots in the league. Buckley is a fundamentally solid middie who can both pass and score.
Sophomore Mike Danylyshyn had eight goals and eight assists in 2008, when he really came on strong late in his rookie season. The natural lefty is a probable first-line middie entering this season. Another late developer is talented junior Chris Palmer, who had a great fall and is now finally healthy after two injury-plagued seasons. Freshman Nick Gantsoudes should also get some playing time right away. On special teams, Bucknell was the least-penalized team in the Patriot League last season, but the Bison would like to do better on man-down, as opponents scored on 12 of 30 (.400) EMO attempts. Bucknell converted on 21 of 56 (.375), second-best in the league, with Brandau leading the PL with seven man-up goals.
The Bison were also one of the best teams in the nation at both clearing and riding. They successfully cleared 81.2 percent of the game, while opponents cleared at a mere 71.2 percent clip.
With the renewed focus on the faceoff game and the quality depth at each of the other positions, Bucknell obviously has championship aspirations in 2009, especially after clearing one important hurdle in getting to the championship game last season. The team had lost its last three semifinal contests, all one-goal games.
"We have a senior class that beat No. 1 Maryland as freshmen, won 11 games as sophomores and won 10 games and made it to the championship game last year," said Fedorjaka. "These guys have been through it all. We are still looking to get better in every area, but our goal is to win the Patriot League championship. That won't be easy because I believe we play in one of the toughest leagues out there. Since I've been the head coach we have not beaten Navy or Colgate, so we know we are going to have to clear those hurdles if we are going to reach our ultimate goal."
Bucknell will have quite a litmus test with which to gauge that improvement early in the year with the first five games coming against Duke, Ohio State, Navy, Hobart and Notre Dame, with only the Navy game at home on Feb. 28.
