GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Messiah men's lacrosse team begins its 2022 season this Wednesday, Feb. 23, squaring off with McDaniel College on the road at 4:00 p.m. The Falcons have a promising season ahead of them, returning 21 players from the 2021 roster with first-year head coach
Dan Carson leading the way.
Last season, Messiah finished with an overall record of 3-7. The Falcons earned momentous win over Wilkes University (9-4), Lycoming College (18-7), and King's College (Pa.) (9-8, OT).
Junior attacker Sam Stone received an All-MAC Commonwealth Second Team, leading the team with 20 goals and 11 assists during the pandemic-shortened 2021 season.
The Falcons received a total of 24 points in the 2022 MAC Commonwealth Men's Lacrosse Coaches' Preseason Poll.
Read below for a quick preview of the upcoming 2022 campaign:
Roster
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the Falcons return an abundance of experienced players from last season's roster. Headlining the returners includes the All-MAC Commonwealth attacker Stone, who returns for his senior season. Messiah also returns notable players who made lasting contributions last season, including
Nate Jaloszynski (seven goals, three assists),
Christian Santangini (seven goals, three assists) and
Seth Libby (eight goals, one assist).
Joining the core of 21 returning players are three first-year players who will look to make immediate contributions during the Falcons' 2022 efforts. The first-year players joining Messiah men's lacrosse are
Isaac Jaloszynski (Bloomingburg, N. Y. / Pine Bush),
Jacob Barber (Carthage, N. Y. / Carthage), and
Zander Stringer (Waterford, Conn. / Waterford).
Schedule
Messiah, after opening up on the road at McDaniel (Feb. 23) and Franklin & Marshall College (Feb. 26), returns to Grantham, Pa. for its home-opener opposite King's College (Pa.) on March 2nd at 7:00 p.m. The Falcons open up their conference schedule on the road at Albright College on March 30th at 4:00 p.m., hosting its first MAC Commonwealth competition of the season on Wednesday, April 6th versus Alvernia University at 6:00 p.m.
The MAC Commonwealth Tournament is slated for May 3 – 7. The top five seeds in the conference qualify for the tournament as the fourth and fifth seeds clash in a play-in game, traveling to square off with the top seed in the Semifinals round. The third and second seeds play each other in the Semifinal game. The Falcons will look to compete in strong fashion this season to return to postseason play for the first time since the 2019 campaign.
Coaches
Head coach Dan Carson enters his first season with the Falcons in 2022, being named the fifth head coach in program history back in July 2021. Carson, who brings a wealth of experience coaching lacrosse across all three NCAA Divisions, brings assistant coach
Brett Bernardo and
Drew Gugliuzza to his coaching staff. Rounding off Carson's coaching staff is
Sean Ireland, a familiar Messiah men's lacrosse assistant coach. Additionally,
Elijah Murray will assist the coaching staff as a student assistant.
