Since legendary coach Rich Meade decided to step down and lead a program that he has built into one of the better college lacrosse programs in the nation, things haven’t been the same in Annapolis. Last season the Midshipman were a lowly 3-10 last season which featured up and down performances across the board all season long.
With the 2013 Fall Ball season drawing to a close the Midshipmen will be gearing up for the 2014 season looking to rebound from a rough 2013 season. As Rick Sowell enters his third year as head coach at Navy, he will look to rebound and point Navy in the right direction. In two seasons, Sowell has registered a 6-6 season and last season’s disappointing 3-10 campaign. The real question is, however, can Navy stop sinking faster than the Titanic?
The short answer is yes, they actually can. If anyone is the right man to turn a program around, it is Sowell. He has experience doing so as he made Stony Brook a national title contending team a couple of seasons ago. He also experience helping Georgetown, St. Johns and Dartmouth to respectability as well.
Last season Navy also saw itself in a lot of tightly contested games that could likely have gone the other way if not for a few breaks here and there. Specifically, the Midshipmen lost three games by one goal, and one game by two goals and three goals as well. That is five games that could have gone the Midshipmen’s way had they executed a little better. If they won those games, that is a 8-5 season right there and could have given the Midshipmen a solid chance at making the NCAA tournament with Georgetown, Maryland and Fairfield being some of the opponents during those games.
Another sign that says that Navy could stop the bleeding is the fact that they bring back six of their top seven scorers from last season. Therefore, their offense will be that much better this year. Also helping the case is the fact that despite losing faceoff man Harrison Chaires, they bring back Sean Reilly who won half the faceoffs he took. While Chaires took more faceoffs (159 to 62) he only won 46 percent of them.
Unfortunately, as strong as their offense will be, their defense will have to replace some very important pieces. While they bring back LSM Pat Kiernan, who was second on the team in caused turnovers with 26, they lose Austin Miller who led the team with 30 caused turnovers. They also lose goalie Nolan Hickey who saved 53 percent the shots he saw. He was also so big in net it was very tough to score on him. John Connors will likely replace him but he didn’t see much time last season and should experience some growing pains.
Another knock on the squad is the ability to recruit at Navy. Navy has certain limitations restricting it from bringing in top talent and that was the case yet again as they failed to register a Top 20 recruiting class.
With the difficulty to recruit and the fact that they will lose their top two scorers, and four of their top six scorers in total after the 2014 season, it seems that Navy still has a ways to go to getting back to respectability.
