By Jacob Saylor
Hood College men’s lacrosse players this season are looking to improve from their last season record of nine wins and seven losses.
In 2023, the Blazers started the season winning their first five games. Their next 11 games consisted of a record of four wins and seven losses.
“As a staff, we are very excited about the make-up of our roster heading into the season,” head coach Brad Barber said. “We return a lot of experience and brought in first years and transfers that will contribute to the success of the program.”
This year’s team has eight seniors and five graduate students.
Barber noted the hard work the team put in over the fall to prepare for this upcoming season. The team played in two scrimmages, with one of those being against a Division I team.
In previous years, spring sports would come back to campus, start classes for a week and then start practices. This would only give the teams a little over two weeks to prepare before their first game.
“With the new NCAA rules, we were able to come back a week early in preparation for the spring and get four practices in,” Barber said. “I felt this was very beneficial for our players to adapt and ease into the season, limiting injuries and using this time as a runway to build up to where we want to be.”
“I think this season will be the best season that I’ve been here for, we have a lot of talented guys on both sides of the ball,” senior Luke Harned said.
Luke added that playing high-level division three teams and a Division I team will help the team. Luke said the basic things like giving 100% at practice is going to be the difference this year when it comes to having the best year since he has been here.
The Middle Atlantic Conference pre-season standing report put Hood College men’s lacrosse in sixth place entering the season. Hood is projected to finish better than Albright and Alvernia, but finish right behind Messiah, which is fifth in the pre-season poll.
The team’s season starts with two away games on Feb. 17 and Feb. 21, before facing Virginia Wesleyan University at home on Feb. 24.
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