It is certainly an exciting week here in Happy Valley for the Penn State Men’s Lacrosse Team.
After finishing on a high note of a CAA title last year, the Nittany Lions were selected by a poll of the head coaches to lead the conference once again. They received three first-place votes, higher than any other program was rated, and they captured the top slot with 23 votes overall. The CAA will announce the pre-season All-CAA elites on Friday, January 24.
This superb rating will hopefully give the Blue and White a confidence boost before their first exhibition match of the season, Thursday, January 23, 2014. Lehigh will be traveling to University Park’s Holuba Hall to take on the Lions at 5:45 pm.
PSU has been working hard to prepare for this opening exhibition, and it will be great to see how some of the returning stars, especially goalkeeper Austin Kout, will perform. The Boston Cannons drafted Kout into the MLL a few weeks ago. Kout will return for PSU’s 2014 season, before beginning his MLL career, however.
Kout seems up for the challenge of his senior season and the team is looking forward to having him in the goal. Penn State’s entire defensive line has returned and is hopeful for another triumphant season. I am especially excited to see how sophomore James Burke has developed his skills since being named to the All-CAA freshman team last season.
This exhibition match will be the perfect way for the Nittany Lions to get back into game-mode before they face one of their future Big Ten competitors, Johns Hopkins on February 1, 2014.
