Danes about to sink teeth into slate
Ualbany opens at Syracuse, plays four preseason Top 10 teams
ALBANY — The reward was a dinner of filet mignon, rib eye steak, chicken, twice-baked potatoes, broccoli and asparagus.
The feast happened in Clifton Park, the home of University at Albany men’s lacrosse coach Scott Marr and his wife, Traci.
“Mrs. Marr killed it,” senior attack Jack Pucci said. “It was wonderful.”
The dinner was the culmination of a competition. Scott Marr split his team into groups that faced off in four areas: academics, weightlifting, extra work and community service. Points were awarded in each.
“It was a good competition,” Marr said. “They really did a nice job of leading as leaders, the older guys. But it’s one of those things where you mix the grades and you mix teams and you’ve got guys doing some things with different people that they wouldn’t normally do. It was a great way for us to kind of come together a little more than we have the last couple of years.”
Pucci and his group enjoyed the fine meal. Now the entire Great Danes team is about to sink its teeth into a grueling schedule, starting with Friday night’s game against Syracuse at JMA Wireless (formerly known as Carrier) Dome.
Ualbany is trying to rebound from a 2022 season in which the Great Danes finished 5-10 overall, 3-3 in the America East. This season, they’re picked in a tie for second with UMBC in the preseason coaches’ poll, behind two-time defending champion Vermont.
“We’re dying to get to Friday night and it felt that way since we got back,” Pucci said. “We had a really, really productive summer. I think we came back as a really mature group. We actually implemented a platoon system of kind of the older guys showing the younger guys the reins and throughout the fall we just kind of built that really, really competitive nature. We relentlessly scrimmaged against each other and top to bottom, first guy to last, really push each other to get better. So I think we’re really excited to go out there on Friday and show the compilation of all of that.”
The Great Danes will play a schedule that’s heavy on home games with a whopping 10 at Casey Stadium, the most in Marr’s 23 seasons. It’s also the type of extremely challenging slate that Marr puts together.
Except he might have outdone himself this time.
Ualbany plays four teams ranked in the preseason coaches Top 10 poll, all at Casey Stadium: top-ranked Maryland, the defending national champion on March 11; No. 4 Cornell, which lost to Maryland in last year’s final, in the Feb. 18 home opener; No. 8 Yale on April 21 and No. 9 Penn on April 26.
“That’s why you come to Albany,” senior attack/midfielder Graydon Hogg said. “Coach Marr is great with recruiting really good games and we play one of the best schedules in the country, right? It’s what D1 lacrosse is all about — playing the best. I think we’re just worried about ourselves, preparing the best we can, and whoever walks in here is going to have to put up a fight.”
Graduate student Elijah Gash is making the transition from defense to longstick midfielder. He said he loves to be able to run the field more and have more opportunities to score. At the same time, he’s enthused about what he sees from this year’s team.
“I feel like this year’s going to be very, very different,” he said after Wednesday’s practice. “The vibe in the locker room is 100 percent different than last year. We work harder. This wouldn’t be happening last year. We’re staying after, we’re putting in the extra work. I think it’s going to be very, very different from last year.”
The Great Danes have lost senior midfielder Conner Fingar (knee), junior attack Camden Hay (knee) and junior midfielder Patrick Mai (double hip surgery) to season-ending injuries. Senior defenseman Wil Pepe, a Shaker graduate, is expected to miss a month after breaking his collarbone in last Friday’s scrimmage against Siena.