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College lacrosse is back. As perhaps the most anticipated season in NCAA history approaches, we’re featuring every team ranked in the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Top 20.

Check back to USLaxMagazine.com each weekday for new previews, scouting reports and rival analysis.

No. 16 Lehigh

2020 Record: 5-1
Pre-COVID Ranking: 15th

 

While the COVID-19 pandemic cut short the 2020 NCAA men’s lacrosse season and left a lot of teams hungry, there may not be a team more ready to capture that unfinished business than the 2021 Lehigh men’s lacrosse team. 

The Mountain Hawks suffered back-to-back losses in the Patriot League championship game in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, they were on one of the best starts in program history when their season was canceled. Their only loss was against Virginia, the No. 1 team in the country at the time and the defending NCAA champion. 

“For the past couple of years, our main goal has been to capture that Patriot League championship, and we’ve come up short twice,” fifth-year faceoff specialist Conor Gaffney said.  “The motivation comes mostly from that, especially since the prospect of this season could be the Patriot League only. “ 

This year, Lehigh will rely on its leadership to help get back to the league final. But this time, the Mountain Hawks want to come out as winners, something this senior class has not been able to accomplish. 

Nike/USL Preseason Top 20
Team Previews

1. Duke 2. Syracuse 3. Maryland 4. Penn State
5. Virginia 6. North Carolina 7. Denver 8. Yale
9. Cornell 10. Notre Dame 11. Georgetown 12. Ohio State
13. Loyola 14. UMass 15. Army 16. Lehigh
17. Richmond 18. Penn 19. Rutgers 20. Johns Hopkins

For the four fifth-years who decided to come back after the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all spring athletes after the 2020 season was canceled, they have a lot riding on this upcoming year — with only more chance to capture that title. 

Midfielders Crew Cintron, Andrew Eichelberger and Christian McHugh were the other fifth-years who chose to return. 

“It’s really exciting to have them back, not only for the type of players they are, but the type of leaders and characteristics they possess is going to add so much value to our team,” coach Kevin Cassese said. 

Lehigh already has had to lean heavily on that leadership under unprecedented circumstances. Due to the amount of positive COVID-19 cases on Lehigh’s campus in the fall, the team only had one official practice together and three weeks of skill sessions. The Mountain Hawks had to get creative with how they would continue to foster team chemistry, despite not being able to practice together as much as they wanted. 

Since Lehigh wasn’t allowed to practice on its field for the majority of the fall, junior attackman Tommy Schelling said the players went to a local park to train. 

“We would pick each other up, drive there, and do ladder and skill work and just try to get an individual workout in,” Schelling said. 

Despite having minimal practice time together, it gives the Mountain Hawks some motivation knowing that they didn’t. 

“We feel like we have this chip on our shoulder that we’re operating from behind because we didn’t get that 12-week period to train in the fall,” Cassese said. “And now they have an eight-week break where they’re on their own, so really there’s an intrinsic motivation for the opportunity to come back and play.”

TOP RETURNERS 

Conor Gaffney, FO, Gr. 

Gaffney has established himself as one of the best faceoff specialists in college lacrosse. He won 65.7 percent of his faceoffs last season and finished ninth in the nation in winning percentage.  

Tommy Schelling, A, Jr.  

Schelling led the Mountain Hawks in goals (22) and assists (11). He finished 12th nationally in points per game (5.50). 

Anthony Tangredi, D, Jr.  

Tangredi’s lockdown defense played a key role in Lehigh’s success last season. He led the Mountain Hawks with 16 caused turnovers and finished second in the nation for caused turnovers per game (2.67). 

KEY ADDITION 

Scott Cole. A/M, Fr. 

Cole is one of 12 freshmen on the Lehigh roster. Cassese said the McDonogh (Md.) product is “wise beyond his years” and expects him to make an impact right away.   

ENEMY LINES 

What rival coaches are saying about the Mountain Hawks:

“They only lost the one (Andrew Pettit), but they were playing four attackmen and they were very tough defensively. They mixed it up a bit between their zone and their man. Defensively oriented with their riding game and did some nice things out of that. Offensively, they were very opportunistic and seemed to me like they were shooting at a high clip, so their attackmen could really score it. They might not have always initiated the play, but they had the middies to be able to do that. The big thing with Lehigh — it will be interesting to see how the rules affect them; probably not that much — but they had as a good a 1-2 punch in the faceoff X as anybody. If you’re going be effective against Lehigh, you have to be tremendously efficient at both ends of the field because the field tends to get slanted toward their offense. You have to be really efficient defensively, you have to be efficient in the clearing game, and you have to be tremendously efficient offensively because you just don’t have your normal number of possessions.” 

“They benefited by having a core group of their attack return. … Their faceoff guys are always pretty talented and they have a core group of guys they can throw at you. They were having some success early on last year. I think they’re playing with a ton of confidence. They’re one of the teams in our league that put together a pretty good fall season. They were able to bubble in and we kept our eye on them from afar. It looked like they were going full field with a good portion of the fall before they got whacked a little bit.” 

NUMBERS GAME 

669 

Faceoff draws won by Conor Gaffney in 52 career games. He averages 12.86 faceoff wins per game, which certainly boosts Lehigh’s dominant offense.