Penn State had one of its best seasons in 2013. They achieved a No. 9 ranking last year, set a school record for wins in a season (12), won the program’s first outright conference title and made it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the season ended earlier than head coach Jeff Tambroni and the Nittany Lions expected as they fell to Yale 10-7.
The Nittany Lions bring back a really solid team this year. They bring back their entire defense and one of the nation’s top goaltenders in Austin Kaut. They also bring back five of their top seven scorers on offense. With the nation’s No. 9 ranked recruiting class coming to Happy Valley as well, this team doesn’t have a lot to fix heading into 2014.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Nittany Lions do lose attackman Jack Forster who was 25th in the nation in points (57) and 19th in the nation in goals scored (41). However, Penn State brings back sophomore attackman TJ Sanders who was 12th in the nation in goals scored (44) and ranked in the top 50 in points scored (48). Senior Shane Sturgis will make the Nittany Lions attack line one of the most potent as he brings his 44 points back to Happy Valley with him.
In the midfield, Penn State loses Nick Dolik, but brings back senior Tom Lacrosse who had 27 points last season. Senior Kyle Vanthof and junior Kyle Zittel should come back and have a bigger role in the offense this season. It wouldn’t be absurd for this offense to build on its No. 27 ranking and score more than the 10.5 goals they averaged last year.
Defensively, this team will be a tough team to beat. Kaut comes back in cage for his senior year and should build on his 59.7 save percentage, which was good for fourth in the nation. He leads a defense that was second in the nation in scoring defense as they only gave up 7.6 goals per game.
The whole entire defense is very experienced and can all equally cause turnovers. In returning all their starters from last season, the team brings back 76 of the 126 caused turnovers it produced last season. Leading the way is senior Steven Bogert and Jack Donnelly, who produced 18 and 17 caused turnovers respectively. Tyler Travis and JP Burnside will figure into the defensive rotation as well.
Danny Henneghan also comes back and will give the Nittany Lions a dominant force at the faceoff ‘X’ as he won 57.5 percent of his faceoffs last season.
The one thing Penn State will build on is the way they handle being the hunted instead of being the huntees. What I mean by that is once Penn State beat Denver 15-12, they lost three games to Top 25 teams. They fell to Ohio State, Notre Dame and Lehigh by a combined four goals. If they can win some of their higher profile games then Penn State will put itself on the map as a national title contender.
Also they will need to replace Forster. Hopefully Nick Aponte, Michael Sutton and Nick Mazza can all combine to replace the scoring left behind. All three midfielders were ranked the No. 29, No. 36 and No. 44 ranked recruits in the country and should give the Nittany Lions more scoring options and depth in the midfield. Lucas Maloney, the No. 83 ranked recruit is the highest profile attackman of the recruiting class and could see some time this season.
All in all, expect a big year from the Nittany Lions and Jeff Tambroni in 2014 with so much talent coming back on both sides of the ball. If everything goes as expected, this team could be a darkhorse for the Final Four.
