2025 Preseason Top 20 Lookahead

[DoctahLexus]

Hop did bring in two transfer SSDMs including Hackler. Probably not the depth they had last year but they should be decent there.

Hackler has been playing a lot more offense lately and Montfort is a rotation guy on a defense that has certainly struggled. The other is a guy from UMBC who I believe also plays D/LSM. It is a pretty significant downgrade from Jaronski Martin and Aviles, who have all been in the AA conversation at one time or another. Believe they lose their 4th guy as well. It was a veteran group and losing all 4 at once will have an impact.

 

[Powellfan]

So he thinks the Top 5 are (in alphabetical order):

Cornell
Notre Dame
Princeton
Syracuse
Virginia

Seems pretty reasonable. I think I would have Hopkins and Maryland over UVA and Princeton at this point, but nothing egregious. His 10-6 is pretty hard to understand I have to say.

Denver lost a ton last year and relied big time on their fifth year seniors. They don't have a good recruiting class coming in, and I don't think they added any transfers of note (and lost a few promising young guys on top of that). I had them 19 when I did my rankings early in the offseason.

Duke lost a megaton and their additions on the transfer market are pretty underwhelming compared to what they usually get. I had them at 15 to start the offseason. They have a good goalie and McAdory is pretty good, but no way they should sniff the top 10, let alone #7. They are getting by on the "name" on the front of their jerseys more than anything here.

I guess I am higher on Hopkins than most. It's a lot of ifs, but IF Collison realizes his star potential, if Melendez rediscovers his 2023 form, they should be pretty good on offense. I don't think Ayers and Chauvette will equal the guys they are replacing, but they should do okay. They don't have any glaring holes like a lot of other teams. Good defense with Smith and Kilrain, good goaltending. Not a lot of place you can exploit.

I imagine Stevens will have Notre Dame at number one, he likes ranking last year's champs first. After that it's a toss up. He seems to shade Syracuse so I wouldn't be surprised if he ranked them lower than we might expect. My guess as to what he will rank them:

1) Notre Dame 2) Cornell 3) Syracuse 4) Virginia 5) Princeton

 

[wgdsr]

YEs UVA doesn't lose the volume that other teams due but they lost their top 3 overall players which is a lot for any team and that's before Boyden decided to not return. They do return a lot of young pieces and add another really good recruiting class plus the Bryant transfer. I think the difference with UVA is their question marks are more on defense and who will be the O qb where Hop and Maryland have overall O questions marks and Duke has questions pretty much everywhere.

we've disagreed on what uva lost in '23 vs what they will this year. either way, it's a good year to have question marks. their d will inevitably have to avoid falling apart at the wrong time, like they have the last 3 years.
and it's not like they have a high bar on offense for final four or even nc$$ play, if they're fortunate enough to be there.

 

[Delmar]

Syracuse, Virginia, Princeton. Looks like we’ve returned to the 1990’s.

 

[JeremyCuse]

we've disagreed on what uva lost in '23 vs what they will this year. either way, it's a good year to have question marks. their d will inevitably have to avoid falling apart at the wrong time, like they have the last 3 years.
and it's not like they have a high bar on offense for final four or even nc$$ play, if they're fortunate enough to be there.

Yup we certainly have. You can make a case either way certainly, for me it's the fact that this year UVA while not losing the overall numbers they lost last year to graudation but will lose their 4 time 1st team AA and clearly O leader in Shellenberger, the schools all time points leader in Cormier and their top overall defender. Even for a school like UVA that just reloads those are 3 huge losses. Clearly there is still a ton of talent there but I suspect it will take some time to adjust. Just as an example your asking a guy like Milon who had a great frosh year to jump from being probably the 4th guy to being the #1 O option and the guy who saw probably each teams 3rd close defender to now drawing e every teams #1 close defender.

Defensively there's concerns as you noted but I think every ACC team has that worry this year, even ND.

 

[nyclax]

of last years quarterfinalists, this is how i would rank the impact of their losses, from biggest to smallest impact

1 duke - goes without saying but no o'neill, entirely new attack, no brower, no naso, no carpenter
2 denver - they were extremely senior heavy
3 gtown - top 4 scorers goodbye
4 uva - shelly cormier kastner goodbye
5 maryland - dont care about malever koras or maltz that much, but wierman and zaps are big
6 hop - will miss degnon and irelan's leadership but biggest loss is ssdm corps, tho mitigated by transfers
7 cuse - stevens and kohn instantly downgrade FO and transition game but not much else lost
8 nd - hot take they still have the better kavanagh. "system" program that can withstand losses like entenman who frankly was overrated last season...

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

Is it too late to liquidate my 401(k) into NIL to throw at Kohn to stay another year?

Mullen is going to be a star these next 3 years as long as he remains healthy but it would be such an advantage to head into next year with the nation’s best FO tandem who don’t just win nearly 60% but also accounted for a combined 11g & 8a while often wearing down opponents & fueling key offensive runs.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Way Early Rankings: Nos. 5-1 (Division I Men)

Notre Dame still belongs in the top tier — but can it go for three in a row?

www.usalacrosse.com

2. SYRACUSE
2024 record: 12-6 (3-1 ACC)

Last seen: Flustered at the offensive end against an older Denver team in a 10-8 quarterfinal loss that left the Orange a game shy of its first NCAA semifinal appearance since 2013.

Projected starts lost: 54 of 180 (30 percent)

Projected scoring departing: 139 of 300 points (46.3 percent)

Initial forecast: It was tempting — really tempting — to place the Orange at No. 1. Maybe it would’ve been easier to make that choice if Syracuse had won its quarterfinal in May. Conversely, falling a game shy of the season’s final weekend makes Gary Gait’s team as good a candidate as any to breathe fire on a consistent basis next season.

Of course, the copious amount of young talent that has incubated in Central New York over the last couple seasons is well-positioned to take another step, whether it is Joey Spallina (37 G, 51 A), Michael Leo (28 G, 9 A) or Finn Thomson (24 G, 14 A) on offense or defenseman Billy Dwan at the other end.

(It’s best not to forget about Owen Hiltz’s 38 goals and 27 assists, but unlike that group, he was already in the second half of his college career in 2024.)

Goalie is a legitimate question after Will Mark’s graduation, but the Orange might be strong enough on offense that simply being solid in the cage will be sufficient.

Syracuse’s trajectory — not to mention its reborn pizzazz — suggest the program’s Memorial Day weekend drought is about to end.

 

[Zack80]

I think Hops main question mark will be ssdm since they lose at least the top 3 at that spot and the Yale guys are far from a guaranteed success as a reload. O might stay afloat since Bauer and Melendez are returning and they have a couple promising younger guys. But their O also struggled to put up serious numbers as the season went on. Will they soak the loss of Crawley and will Melendez actually start to look good off the dodge again. Probably the two biggest question marks for their O. Think the D will take a hit due to the ssdm spot. Overall they are probably in better shape than Duke and MD.

Maryland appears to have more options on the offense, so I think they are in better shape.

 

[wgdsr]

Yup we certainly have. You can make a case either way certainly, for me it's the fact that this year UVA while not losing the overall numbers they lost last year to graudation but will lose their 4 time 1st team AA and clearly O leader in Shellenberger, the schools all time points leader in Cormier and their top overall defender. Even for a school like UVA that just reloads those are 3 huge losses. Clearly there is still a ton of talent there but I suspect it will take some time to adjust. Just as an example your asking a guy like Milon who had a great frosh year to jump from being probably the 4th guy to being the #1 O option and the guy who saw probably each teams 3rd close defender to now drawing e every teams #1 close defender.

Defensively there's concerns as you noted but I think every ACC team has that worry this year, even ND.

we're all just prognosticating. if you looked at schools losing tewaaraton finalist level players over the recent past, most have probably slipped some. then again, being there or usila generally is a function of team performance, as well.

one thing i doubt - they'll slip 3 1/2 goals in gpg like they did last year. first half of the year was going fine, and then about 12 gpg in the back half. competition wasn't a ton different. did they get one dimensional and figured out? They certainly seemed like less of a threat to win it all late vs '23 even though it was out in the semis both years.

CS best year was his freshman year, IMO. Maybe not coincidentally, they had 9 guys with 20 points and another close that year, and they won. Too early to tell hoo the alpha might be and i do think you need one to win it all, but if millon soaks the #1 defender, that might not be the worst thing in the world if they have more guys ready to produce. or an offense in '25 that can help them do that.

 

[nyclax]

Too early to tell hoo the alpha might be

no its not... its going to be millon. prob one of the easier calls in recent memory

 

[DMVCuseLax]

Way Early Rankings: Nos. 5-1 (Division I Men)

Notre Dame still belongs in the top tier — but can it go for three in a row?

www.usalacrosse.com

2. SYRACUSE
2024 record: 12-6 (3-1 ACC)

Last seen: Flustered at the offensive end against an older Denver team in a 10-8 quarterfinal loss that left the Orange a game shy of its first NCAA semifinal appearance since 2013.

Projected starts lost: 54 of 180 (30 percent)

Projected scoring departing: 139 of 300 points (46.3 percent)

Initial forecast: It was tempting — really tempting — to place the Orange at No. 1. Maybe it would’ve been easier to make that choice if Syracuse had won its quarterfinal in May. Conversely, falling a game shy of the season’s final weekend makes Gary Gait’s team as good a candidate as any to breathe fire on a consistent basis next season.

Of course, the copious amount of young talent that has incubated in Central New York over the last couple seasons is well-positioned to take another step, whether it is Joey Spallina (37 G, 51 A), Michael Leo (28 G, 9 A) or Finn Thomson (24 G, 14 A) on offense or defenseman Billy Dwan at the other end.

(It’s best not to forget about Owen Hiltz’s 38 goals and 27 assists, but unlike that group, he was already in the second half of his college career in 2024.)

Goalie is a legitimate question after Will Mark’s graduation, but the Orange might be strong enough on offense that simply being solid in the cage will be sufficient.

Syracuse’s trajectory — not to mention its reborn pizzazz — suggest the program’s Memorial Day weekend drought is about to end.

No mention of Carter, English, Figueiras, and Rhoa? Interesting.

 

[wgdsr]

no its not... its going to be millon. prob one of the easier calls in recent memory

ok, see: we disagree. so it's up in the air already! haha.

 

[nyclax]

No mention of Carter, English, Figueiras, and Rhoa? Interesting.

why does he need to mention every player on the team? he ranked them #2 for gods sakes he clearly thinks highly of them

ok, see: we disagree. so it's up in the air already! haha.

who is the alpha going to be if not millon

 

[DoctahLexus]

No mention of Carter, English, Figueiras, and Rhoa? Interesting.

We have too many good players. A good problem to have!

 

[Zack80]

who is the alpha going to be if not millon

Any report on Ryan Duenkel's status?

 

[wgdsr]

who is the alpha going to be if not millon

what i meant by that is what i said originally (and you disagree with), that i don't know.

it's all good.

 

[nyclax]

what i meant by that is what i said originally (and you disagree with), that i don't know.

it's all good.

convincing. generally if the answer isn't obvious there'd be someone else you could at least point to as a plausible alternative...

 

[wgdsr]

convincing. generally if the answer isn't obvious there'd be someone else you could at least point to as a plausible alternative...

i'm not trying to convince you there'll be a certain guy because that was my original take?
if it's important, i don't think it'll be a freshman or a guy that wasn't in the top 6 last year, as virginia leaned more into those top 6 guys than in a long time.

that leaves 3 guys and the 2 transfers.

unusual, but 2 guys hit me up separately to say i'm gonna love hackett. watched him a bit and didn't see all of that, and at his size it may be a new realm for him. but he was very productive from the midfield, and not while having the ball a ton.

balsamo was also told didn't transfer for reasons about pt, usage, pecking order.

we'll see. what i also said as a hoped-for dynamic is that a bunch of guys are dangerous and productive. 'cuse has had that to a large degree the last 2 years, and if that's doable and the scheme is right, the 'hoos ceiling rises. imo.

 

[Hoo's That]

no its not... its going to be millon. prob one of the easier calls in recent memory

why does he need to mention every player on the team? he ranked them #2 for gods sakes he clearly thinks highly of them


who is the alpha going to be if not millon

It's hard to imagine having the offense not work through Millon. He will definitely get the #1 pole to start the season. Of course folks may adjust as things develop (better at covering dodges vs. better at preventing passes, etc.).

 

[DMVCuseLax]

Any report on Ryan Duenkel's status?

He is hoping to be cleared sometime in the fall.

 

[Zack80]

I have looked at things wrt Princeton. They didn't beat any of the seeded teams last year, and got beat convincingly twice by UMd and blown out by Duke. Further, they lose their star goalie Gianforcaro and talented LSM Pace Billings They have a nice group of young players but I think they need to beat someone to get into my top 5.

So I guess my top 5 at this point will be:
1 Notre Dame
2 Syracuse
3 Cornell
4 Maryland - Ford really looked good in the AA games. Daniel Kelly is back. Gravino looked outstanding in the NCBS tmt. With the transfers, lots of guys to fill in on the offense.
5. Virginia - Hackett seems interesting, possible replacement for Boyden and Balsamo is another possibility there. Hausmann looked pretty good in the AA games this summer. Kyle Colsey seemed to struggle finding the net, but dodged well in the AA games. It will be an interesting dual between him and the experienced Menke for Cormier's spot.

 

[wgdsr]

I have looked at things wrt Princeton. They didn't beat any of the seeded teams last year, and got beat convincingly twice by UMd and blown out by Duke. Further, they lose their star goalie Gianforcaro and talented LSM Pace Billings They have a nice group of young players but I think they need to beat someone to get into my top 5.

So I guess my top 5 at this point will be:
1 Notre Dame
2 Syracuse
3 Cornell
4 Maryland - Ford really looked good in the AA games. Daniel Kelly is back. Gravino looked outstanding in the NCBS tmt. With the transfers, lots of guys to fill in on the offense.
5. Virginia - Hackett seems interesting, possible replacement for Boyden and Balsamo is another possibility there. Hausmann looked pretty good in the AA games this summer. Kyle Colsey seemed to struggle finding the net, but dodged well in the AA games. It will be an interesting dual between him and the experienced Menke for Cormier's spot.

duenkel had a shoulder, but it was a year ago, must've been pretty bad. he's on the slight side, that probably hindered filling out tho he still has time and maybe his brother can help there. quicker than sunderland it looks like, and they did accept him into u20s which would indicate his timeline is to play.

colsey from what seen and heard is a volume shooter and maybe likes odd-angle carcaterra type shooting a bit too much for someone that's dodging to score with pressure vs. on wing or finishing. maybe he gets it straightened out.

mencke haven't given up on, he has 2 years. but he's been there 3 and what he's shown in the offseason hasn't translated. think he'd torch shorties if that was the backup plan, but kirwan and cassese haven't agreed.

colsey's a lefty. hackett's a lefty. balsamo's a lefty. mencke's a lefty. even ryan colsey's (att in h.s.) a lefty and schutz can and does play equally or more lefty. that's a lot of lefties.

maybe they go r-l-l at attack.

 

[Zack80]

duenkel had a shoulder, but it was a year ago, must've been pretty bad. he's on the slight side, that probably hindered filling out tho he still has time and maybe his brother can help there. quicker than sunderland it looks like, and they did accept him into u20s which would indicate his timeline is to play.

colsey from what seen and heard is a volume shooter and maybe likes odd-angle carcaterra type shooting a bit too much for someone that's dodging to score with pressure vs. on wing or finishing. maybe he gets it straightened out.

mencke haven't given up on, he has 2 years. but he's been there 3 and what he's shown in the offseason hasn't translated. think he'd torch shorties if that was the backup plan, but kirwan and cassese haven't agreed.

colsey's a lefty. hackett's a lefty. balsamo's a lefty. mencke's a lefty. even ryan colsey's (att in h.s.) a lefty and schutz can and does play equally or more lefty. that's a lot of lefties.

maybe they go r-l-l at attack.

I think Schutz is really a righty and if he moved to attack, he would play righty. Truitt Sunderland is right-handed. Ryan Duenkel is right-handed. So the attacks that I see as most likely would be r-r-l.

So the lefty problem might something for the midfield. Not as big a problem when it occurs there. Incoming freshman Hudson Hausmann is a right-hander. Of course, midfielders often take a year to develop. Hausmann has some spring highlights up:

 

[Laxfanshutt]