Last year's squad advanced all the way to the NESCAC semifinals before ending the season at the hands of the number one team in the nation, Middlebury College. Four valuable seniors-including Amherst's leading scorer-graduated from that Amherst team, but in their stead arise experienced veterans, new talent and a greater drive for success.
Midfielder Mike Allison '04 and defender Alexei Kudla '04 will captain this year's squad. Allison was third on the team in scoring last year with 26 goals and six assists, while, at the other end of the field, Kudla kept attackers away from the cage all year with his size and physical presence.
Mother nature has been kind to the Jeffs this season as mild temperatures and minimal snowfall have allowed the team to escape the cramped confines of Coolidge Cage and practice outdoors on the turf at UMass.
"Playing on the full field is infinitely better than attempting to do anything productive in the cage," said Allison. The effect on the team's practices has been noticeable, as its strong practices and wins in two scrimmages will attest.
Up front the Jeff attack will be headlined by Alex Casertano '05. Casertano lit up opponents for 16 goals and 17 assists last year, trailing only Chris Condlin '03 and Allison in the scoring column. He will be joined by fellow attackmen Andrew Syfu '05 and Kevin Boova '06, both of whom love to distribute the ball. New to the offense is Derek Cherney '07, a speedy rookie who stands to get a lot of playing time. "[Cherney] will make an immediate impact at attack," said Kudla. "He is one of the fastest attackmen in the league and he has the ability to both go hard to the cage and to set up teammates."
Supporting the attackers in the midfield will be a bevy of experienced players. "At midfield we are stacked-with fiery Mike Allison '04 in charge as well as shifty Colby Griffith '05, lightning quick Joaquin Walker '05, powerful Sean Murray '06 and freshman Chris Hofmann '07, who is a big lefty shooter and should make significant contributions," said Kudla.
Kudla will anchor a strong defensive unit that includes Greg Donohue '05, Greg Emmanuelidis '05 and First-Team All-NESCAC selection Andrew Wilcox '06. Junior netminder Cushing Donelan, who made 179 saves for the Jeffs last year, will guard the goal.
The mixture of proven talent and young blood should spell success for the 2004 men's lacrosse team. "We have a large junior class of players who now have two years of experience under their belts, so we expect to have a lot of upperclass leadership and poise on the field," said Allison. "We have a very deep team, as we'll probably have six attackmen, six longpoles and 10 midfielders seeing significant amounts of playing time when only three at each position play at any given time. This should translate into a lot of fast-paced action, as we hope to beat teams with a combination of skill and intensity, never letting them get into the game."
One challenge facing the Lord Jeffs this year is their schedule. Of 14 regular season games, just three are at home. Four games will be held at a neutral site-including three that will open the team's season next week in Florida-while the other seven will be played on the road. The conference slate is even more skewed-seven of the team's nine NESCAC games will be on the road. The lopsided schedule is a byproduct of the 2003 season, which saw Amherst play seven games at home, highlighted by six in a row late in the campaign.
Because Amherst plays so few games at home, there is very little margin for error, and the team will have to learn to ratchet up the intensity without the help of the raucous Hitchcock Field crowd.
Next week the Jeffs fly to sunny Florida where they will soak up the rays and open the regular season with a trio of non-conference games. Amherst plays Kenyon College on March 16, Keene State University the next day and sixth-ranked Nazareth College on March 19. Nazareth will be an early test for an Amherst team with eyes on the postseason.
Future games to keep an eye on include an April 10 visit to Middlebury College, an April 17 date at Wesleyan University and a May 1 home game against Williams College to close out the season. Amherst is ready to begin its campaign to win the NESCAC title.