As promised, the rest of the 2007 Division 1 College Lacrosse rankings follow.

11. Denver—Saying goodbye to eight seniors is never a positive, but bringing back three of your top five scorers from the previous year certainly helps with the healing process.

For the Pioneers, who finished 5-0 in the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) last season to take the outright crown and make their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, high expectations await in the ‘07 season.

DU will have a strong leadership presence from its 11 seniors this season, most of which have significant experience from the previous years, including attack duo Ryan Zordani and Brandon Barcus and defenseman David Hahn – three of the team’s four captains for the upcoming season. Both Zordani and Hahn were already named two of Denver’s three pre-season All-America Honorable Mentions, but don’t be surprised if they bump their way up even higher by season’s end.

Denver Defenseman David Hahn against Colgate

The other on the list is junior Rory Shepard – an absolutely ruthless defenseman – who along with Hahn, started for a unit that surrendered just fewer than eight goals per game last season. With both players returning, along with continued solid play in net from senior Job Hollingsworth, under seven goals per game is not out of sight this year.

Zordani, with his balanced style (19g, 20a), will anchor the offense yet again with Barcus (25g, 8a) acting as his main target for finishing.

Also look for even more production from redshirt sophomore Todd Ruport (14g, 6a) and junior Brett Koll (9g, 10a) – the other captain. The Pioneers will definitely need some players to step up this season as they attempt to fill the holes left by the loss of 2006 GWLL Player of the Year/World Games MVP Geoff Snider (21g, 10a) and fellow midfielder Adam Goodwin (26g, 8a), who led the team in goals last season.

Denver has dominated opponents in the face-off circle the past five years with Snider, and Scott Davidson before him. If they can maintain a high percentage at the ‘X’ and gain extended possession of the ball, they will go far.

Bottom Line: Denver is looking to make their second consecutive claim on the GWLL title in ’07, as well as the automatic bid that comes with it.

12. Towson—The Tigers season in ’06—6 losses—was not quite as good as their ’05 season, but this is a team that always plays well and will be in the thick of it again.

On attack the will miss Phil Grillo, but do return Bobby Greibe who was productive with 18 goals and 7 assists last season.

Towson vs. Loyola

Even without the ineligible Oliver Bacon, Towson’s strength is in the Midfield. Brain Vetter, Matt Eckerl, and Kyle Smedley will be the nucleus they build around in ’07.

Towson will also miss goalie Mark DeGroat who was solid in saving over half the shots he faced last year. He was part of a tough defense that held opponents to under 8 and ½ goals a game in ’06 and let up far fewer goals in the second half of games than the first.

Bottom Line: The Tigers are a threat and with their midfield could sneak up on some people.

13. Hofstra-The Pride are coming off a great season that included an incredible 17 game winning streak that was good enough to have them ranked in the top 5 for most of the season. They also had the top goal scorer in Division 1 lacrosse last year, Athan Ianucci, who had an outrageous 62 goals.

Unfortunately for Hofstra, Ianucci was recently selected #1 in the MLL supplemental draft since he was out of eligibility. Worse news is that the Pride lost more than just their top goal scorer. They lost guys from all over the field. Also gone are attackman Chris Unterstein (45 goals and 36 assists) and midfielders John Keysor, Ryan Lucas and Tim Treubig. On defense Brett Moyer, John Orsen, and goalie Matt Southard are all gone due to graduation.

The biggest loss, however, is that of coach John Danowski who moved on to take the Duke job.

Hofstra does have attackman Tom Dooley back. He was third on the team in scoring with 38 goals and 13 assists as a freshman last year. He will have to carry a great deal of the load in ’07.

Starting with Dooley and also Mike Unterstein, the Pride have enough talent left to make the playoffs. They were a proven winner last year, but are a bit of a wild card coming in ’07 considering how much they lost to graduation.

Bottom Line: New Head Coach Seth Tierney will need to pull this team together for them to be as good as they were in ‘06.

14. Loyola—The Greyhounds were a nice surprise last year. After starting the season outside the top 20, they raised some eyebrows when they beat Georgetown and Penn State in the regular season.

A one goal loss to Hopkins in overtime in their last game kept them out of the playoffs. They also lost tough games to Towson (by one goal) and Duke (by two.)

Andrew Spack of Loyola

I talked to head coach Charlie Toomey this week and he said it is nice to start the year in the top 20 and that he is excited for the coming season.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing about Loyola coming in '07 is that they return all of their top scorers. This includes Dan Bauers who led the team with 22 Goals and 11 assists in '06 and is, according to Coach Toomey, also a great leader in the locker room. Bauers will again be joined on offense by Andrew Spack (11, 15) Ryan Rabidou (18, 6) and Patrick Kennedy (12, 8) who is coming off a knee injury he sustained against Umass last year. Paul Richard (11, 11) is rehabbing a knee injury he sustained this summer and may be back for the season.

The biggest loss for Loyola coming into ‘07 is that of Goalie Michael Fretwell who graduated last Spring. Sophomores Conor Locke and Alex Peatly are, according to coach Toomey, in a battle to win the starting job. They split time this Fall, and it is too early to call who will win it.

The Greyhounds have a tradition of playing tough teams and that continues. They open the season at Notre Dame on February 17th and also face Duke, UMass, Syracuse and Hopkins in the regular season.

Bottom Line: Loyola moved into the top 20 last year, and they were playing with confidence when the season ended. If they play a little better in '07--especially on the road--they could very well move into the top 10 or higher.

15. Penn—The Quakers are coming off a great season in which they went 10 and 4, losing only to Hopkins, Maryland, Princeton and Harvard. If they keep climbing at this rate, they will be a top 10 team in ’07.

What keeps them from being ranked higher to start the season is they lost their top three scorers to graduation.

They have a very strong midfield that centers around Senior David Cornbrooks. Cornbrooks had 18 goals last year and will team with Drew Collins (10,5) and Craig Andrzejewski who is coming off a great Freshman season last year.

Goalie Greg Klossner (.539 save percentage) is also back.

Bottom Line: Penn played very well last year, losing only a few times. They will look to build on that in ’07.

16. Notre Dame—Like Penn, Notre Dame graduated their top three scorers from last year. Also like Penn, they got a great deal of production from their midfielders. The top two--Ryan Hoff (21 goals) and Bill Liva (10 goals, 8 assists)--are back to lead the offense in ‘07.

Notre Dame's Ryan Hoff against Cornell

The real strength of the Notre Dame team is on defense. They held opponents to 7.67 goals a game last year and have all their top defenders back except D.J. Driscol. The real star on defense is Junior goalie Joey Kemp who saved 59.6% of the shots he faced last year and 65.2% as a Freshman, when he led the country in save percentage.

Notre Dame opens the season against Loyola, and then plays Penn State, Cornell, Carolina and Dartmouth followed by a Great Western Lacrosse League schedule the rest of the way.

Bottom Line: The Irish defense and midfielders are solid and if they can fill the holes at attack, they will go far in ’07.

17. Penn State—The Nittany Lions just missed the NCAA Tournament in ‘06 and are looking to have a bit more luck this time around.

The graduation of Nate Whitaker and John Eremus leave holes on offense, but they do return attackman Brian Boyle (12, 25) and midfielder Pat Heim (17, 5.)

On defense, the starters from last year—Dan Saltsman, Matt Mulqueen and John Stuckey—all return. They also have goalie Drew Adams back. He had a .603 save percentage as a Freshman in ‘06.

Penn State will face Denver and Notre Dame as well as their regular ECAC schedule of UMass, Georgetown, Loyola, Hobart, and the like.

Bottom Line: The ECAC is a tough conference and Penn State will be in the thick of it again on ’07.

18. Albany— In addition to their regular America East Schedule, Albany plays some of the top teams in the country. The Great Danes open with Hopkins on February 24th and then face UMass on March 13th. With these tough early season match-ups, it will be clear pretty quickly just how good Albany is in ’07.

The schedule does not get much easier late in the year when Albany faces Syracuse. This is a game that could be very interesting considering the Danes lost by only one to ‘Cuse in both ’05 and ’06.

How are they able to complete with such top teams ? Talent. Better news still is that Albany has almost all that talent back this year. The Danes lost only 3 players to graduation and only 1 of those 3 was a starter.

So with only Chris Martocchia missing on offense, they will still have plenty of firepower. That firepower starts with Frank Resetartis. He is coming off a great ’06 season in which he had 64 points on 45 goals and 19 assists. Joining him are Merrick Thomson (31,11) Jordan Levine (14, 13) Corey Small (20, 5) and Derek Dale (14, 6.) They also have their starting defense and goalie Brett Queener back.

Bottom Line: Coach Scott Marr tells me he is excited for the coming season. I think he has done a great job with Albany over the last 6 years and ’07 should be more of the same.

19. Delaware—With the best face off man in college lacrosse in Alex Smith and a powerful offense, the Blue Hens will have a chance to win every game they play.

Coach Bob Shillinglaw puts it like this: "If we can maximize possessions off face-offs and minimize turnovers, we will be competitive."

It should be easy for Delaware to maximize possesions with Alex Smith around. Smith won 261 out of 381 face-offs last season for a .685 winning percentage and was a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist. He also set an NCAA record when he won 21 face-offs in a single game.

Alex Smith

On offense, the Hens have their top six scorers back from last year. Cam Howard led the way in ’06 with 29 goals and 27 assists. He will team with Dan Deckelbaum, Jordan Hall, Marty Kupprion, Beau Davis and Adam Zuder-Havens.

Two Freshmen will be in the mix at midfield--High School All American Kevin Kaminski, and Martin Cahill who is from Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts.

It is also important to note that Cam Howard is coming off ACL surgery, but that he should be full strength by March.

With Smith at the X and the offense scoring, Delaware may not have to play much defense. This is good for them because this is where that have lost the most. While they do have Goalie Tom Scherr back, they graduated longsticks Bob West and Paul Rodriguez as well as close defenseman Taylor Bloor. The defensemen who will have to step up are Pat Diehl, a great transition guy, and Evan Crowder, a great one on one guy. The Hens also got Rob Smith, a transfer from Georgetown that will see playing time.

Bottom Line: Attackman Jordan Hall was on the World Champion Canadian National Team this summer. With Hall, Preseason 1st Team All Conference player Dan Deckelbaum, and Cam Howard leading the way on offense, and Alex Smith on the face-offs, Delaware may be playing in the NCAAs come May.

20. North Carolina—The bright spots here start with the fact that the Heels leading scorer last year was a freshman, Bart Wagner, and their third and fourth scorers were sophomores, Michael Burns and Nick Tintle. Those three guys will be the keys to pacing the offense in ‘07.

Carolina's top returning scorers Nick Tintle, Michael Burns and Bart Wagner

Another big bright spot for the Heels came when they beat Penn State 15-8 in the St. Paul’s Tourney this fall.

A young and productive offense plus a win over Penn State in the Fall is enough to push Carolina into a top 20 ranking.

To keep on winning, Carolina will need the defense that held opponents to under 10 goals a game last year to be equally strong this season. Sophomore goalie Grant Zimmerman will need to step up and make it happen.

Carolina consistently plays one of the toughest schedules in college lacrosse. Their season starts this year on February 17 against Ohio State. The Heels also face their regular ACC opponents—Virginia, Maryland and Duke—plus Navy and Hopkins in the regular season.

Bottom Line: Carolina has had disappointing seasons the last several years. Their young talent will be a key to turning things around in ‘07.

Disclaimer

Let me close the rankings by saying that I am sure that there are some teams and a bunch of great players not listed in the top 20 that will prove me wrong and that they deserve consideration as being among the best in the country. That is one of the things that makes Division 1 College Lacrosse so compelling.

Thank you

A sincere thank you to my colleague Kevin Fixler for his input on this edition of College Beat.

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