NCAA Rewind: Saint Joseph's Produces Longest Winning Streak in Program History

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

SAINT JOSEPH’S

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: unranked/No. 16
2024 record: 12-4 (5-0 Atlantic 10)

What went right: Nearly everything in March, April and early May. The Hawks rattled off a 12-game winning streak that included all of A-10 play and conference tournament defeats of UMass and Richmond to secure the program’s second NCAA tournament berth. 

Longtime offensive mainstays Carter Page (43 goals, 6 assists), Matt Bohmer (37 G, 13 A) and Levi Anderson (33 G, 24 A) had excellent seasons, Lenoir-Rhyne import Toron Eccleston (24 G, 9 A) made a superb transition to Division I and freshman midfielder Jesse Jason (21 G, 11 A) earned A-10 rookie of the year honors. 

Levi Verch led a physical defense and caused 29 turnovers as he landed the league’s defensive player of the year award.

What went wrong: An 0-3 start capped by a 15-7 loss at home Towson was defined in part by the Hawks not acting their age. But their combination of talent and experience eventually asserted itself, a goalie change helped stabilize the defense and Saint Joseph’s earned all but three of their victories during their winning streak by at least four goals. 

As rugged as the Hawks were, they ran into someone capable of handling that physicality in Virginia, which shrugged off a sloppy start to roll to a 17-11 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Season highlight: The final 22 minutes of the Atlantic 10 title game. Down two in the middle of the third quarter, the Hawks ripped off an 8-1 run (four of them provided by Anderson) to zip to a 17-12 victory over Richmond, their second in eight days against the Spiders. Saint Joseph’s improved to 12-1 against A-10 competition since the league was formed a year ago and clinched the program’s second NCAA trip in three years in the process.

Verdict: The big question about the Hawks coming into the year was how they would handle not having faceoff maestro Zach Cole. Turns out it went well. Maryland transfer Gavin Tygh won 50.7 percent of his attempts, and Saint Joseph’s didn’t take a step back after losing its most decorated player ever. The tournament loss to Virginia doesn’t diminish in the slightest a year that featured the longest winning streak in program history.