GENEVA, N.Y.—The 114th season of Hobart College lacrosse starts Saturday, Feb. 13, at Penn State. The Statesmen will look to build on a 2015 season that saw them post their best record since 2009.
 
The Statesmen were 7-7 a year ago. Hobart went 4-2 in Northeast Conference play, finishing second in the league standings. Hobart has been picked to finish third in the NEC preseason coaches poll, behind four-time defending tournament champion Bryant and 2015 regular season champion Saint Joseph's.
 
After facing the Nittany Lions in Holuba Hall, the Statesmen will travel to Atlanta to face Siena in the Cobb County Classic on Feb. 20 and then head to West Palm Beach, Fla., to face Cornell in the Florida Classic sponsored by LacrosseNewsNetwork.com. The showdown with the Big Red will be the 135th meeting in Hobart's oldest rivalry.
 
Third-year Head Coach Greg Raymond will welcome back 31 letter winners from his second season, including five starters.
 
Hobart will be strongest on defense where second team All-NEC goalie Jackson Brown and all three starting close defensemen return. The Statesmen have gotten stronger on the defensive end in each of the past three seasons, lowering their goals against average from 12.86 in 2012 to 9.24 last season.
 
Brown started all 14 games in the cage and finished 10th in the nation in save percentage (.561) and saves per game (11.86) and 23rd in goals against average (9.31). He played the strongest against the Statesmen's strongest opponents, turning back a season-high 22 shots at Saint Joseph's, posting 18 saves at Georgetown, and making 14 stops against No. 4 Syracuse and No. 10 Cornell. A gifted stopper, Brown has improved his clearing game and grown into a vocal leader.
 
Sophomore Cole Bardawill and first-year Tristan Dougherty are battling for the No. 2 spot.
 
The close defense will feature returning starters in junior Grant Soucy and sophomore D. Bennett Moore as well as junior Arik Andreen, who will stay home after being Hobart's top long-stick midfielder last season. Soucy led the team and was seventh in the conference with 13 caused turnovers last year. He will once again be charged with guarding the opposition's top attackman. Moore was tied for second on the team with eight caused turnovers in 2015. A starter from Day 1, he has a great command of the defense, good cover skills and is a solid communicator. Second on the team in ground balls a year ago, Andreen's nose for the ball, fitness, mobility and stick skills make the defense more stout and quicker in transition.
 
Sophomores Connor Flood and Jake Sawyer and first-year Parke Schweiter will push the starters and give the Statesmen depth on the crease.
 
Sophomore Christopher Willman, who started on close defense last year, will switch with Andreen and play long-stick middie along with junior Noel McGuinness and sophomore William Locke. Willman had 24 ground balls and eight caused turnovers in his first season. McGuiness appeared in nine games, while Locke saw action in 10 contests.
 
If he's healthy, junior Shane Hurley gives Hobart another talented long-stick middie, but back problems have limited his playing time.
 
Senior Teddy Sisco, junior Sean Cunningham, sophomore Henry Mann, and first-year Stanton Gilbertson are the Statesmen's top d-middies. Sisco is an experienced defender, a hard-worker, and a leader on and off the field. Cunningham doesn't post eye-popping numbers, but he makes great decisions on the field and is a steadfast defender. Mann is one of the best ground ball guys on the team. A native Californian, Gilbertson is athletic, fast and pound-for-pound one of the strongest players on the team. The coaches are very excited about his potential.
 
The midfield will be without the productive Taylor Vanderbeek '15, but this year's middies are the deepest in Coach Raymond's tenure. He plans to use a dozen players or more per game, keeping legs fresh, unlike years past when the bench was much shorter.
 
Senior Cooper Stefaniak is the team's lone captain. He's also the team's top returning scorer (11-3-14) and paced the 2015 squad in ground balls with 43. Classmate Gavin Llewellyn and junior Mark Darden will start alongside him on the top line. Llewellyn had back surgery two years ago and continues to gain strength and confidence. Darden has had a limited role the past two seasons, but is ready to be a more consistent presence in the lineup. Max Romm has been dinged up in the preseason, but could compete for a spot on the top line when he's 100 percent.
 
Romm, junior Kevin Murphy, and sophomore Mason Burr will comprise the second line with first-year Bryan Hancock in the mix when he's healthy. Romm earned five starts last year and finished the season with nine points. Murphy appeared in 11 games as a sophomore in a defensive role, but will see time on both ends of the field this year. With a year in the program under his belt, Burr is ready to make an impact.
 
Junior Tanner John, sophomore Riley McTague, and first-year Koko Avedisian will comprise the third line.
 
Sophomore faceoff specialist J. Andrew Spallanzani learned on the fly last season, shouldering the load while trying to adjust to the college game. He's shown significant improvement. First-year Matthew Pedicine was a highly touted recruit out of Clark, N.J., and will be able spell Spallanzani without having to be Hobart's first option.
 
With the graduation of All-NEC first teamer Alex Love '15, Hobart is without a star on attack. Love scored 129 career goals, more than any other Division I Statesman. His departure leaves the door open for a new star or stars to emerge from a talented group of veterans and newcomers.
 
Juniors Frank Brown and Sean Donnelly will lead the attack with sophomore Owen Smith and first-years Chris Aslanian, Gerald Flood and Kyle Grimaldi competing for time up top. Brown has shown flashes of brilliance, but has been hampered by injuries that cost him most of the 2014 season and four games last season. When healthy, he creates matchup problems due to combination of size, speed, and stick skills. Last season was essentially Donnelly's rookie campaign after missing 2014 due to injury. He scored the game winner in overtime to beat Wagner and handed out a season-high three assists at Sacred Heart.
 
Aslanian has impressed in the preseason and has the inside track on the final starting spot. He's a big, strong dodger that can score and sees the field well as evidenced by his 40 goals and 43 assists for The Hun School of Princeton last season. Smith is a hard-worker with a great grasp of the offense who is poised for a breakthrough. Flood is adjusting to the pace of the collegiate game and has the passing skills and vision to quarterback the offense. Grimaldi has the potential to be an explosive dodger. His father, Tom '85, and uncle, Larry '82, both played lacrosse at Hobart and were inducted into the Hobart Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
 
The Statesmen will face a challenging non-conference schedule that includes preseason No. 7 Syracuse, No. 13 Georgetown, No. 17 Cornell, Colgate and Penn State. The latter two received votes in the preseason poll. The Kraus-Simmons game against the Orange will be televised by Time Warner Cable Sports. League play begins on March 19 at Wagner followed by a home game against a Saint Joseph's squad that returns almost everyone from last season. The regular season will conclude with a home game against Sacred Heart on April 30.