Saints Crack Top-20 of National Preseason Poll

by: 

Tara Freeman

Captain Tucker Garfield '13 and the Saints are ranked No. 20 in the USILA preseason poll.

Feb. 12: The St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team will open the 2013 campaign as the No. 20 team in the country, as the United State Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association announced its annual preseason coaches' ranking on Monday.

The Saints, who posted a solid 2012 season with a record of 12-3, are one of three ranked Liberty League teams, including No. 6 RIT and No. 13 Union.

"While it's certainly nice to get recognition from other Division III coaches, our team realizes that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare to compete with the teams on our schedule, which on paper, is as difficult as any we've ever played," said St. Lawrence head coach Mike Mahoney, the 2012 Liberty League Coach of the Year. "We have had a good start to our preseason and look forward to a couple of scrimmages to prepare us for our opener with Haverford."

St. Lawrence returns a solid corps of veterans this spring, including captains Davey Hovey, Tucker Garfield and Cam Scullen. Hovey is coming off of a huge 2012 season that saw him set new career-highs in goals, assists, points, ground balls and caused turnovers en route to First Team All-Conference honors. Garfield remained one of the team's premier goal scorers with 12 including the game-winner against Skidmore, while Scullen earned Liberty League Honorable Mention thanks to new career-bests in the midfield in both groundballs and caused turnovers.

The No. 20 Saints will open their 2013 season on Saturday, March 2 in Greenwich, CT when they square off with Haverford. The 2013 schedule also includes three games against preseason ranked teams (RIT, Union, Bowdoin), two more with others getting votes (Clarkson and Adrian) and perennial powerhouses such as Middlebury, Skidmore, Nazareth and Geneseo State.