Towson ended the season putting Notre Dame against the ropes before losing 12-10 to the National Semifinalist. The Tigers return a number of important pieces, but to take the next step in the national picture they need for their youngsters to grow up quickly.
Coach Nadelen’s team was 12-6, 2-2 in the CAA, and looked for consistency at a number of intervals during the 2015 campaign. The one thing that the team knew how to do was win tight games. They defeated Charles Street rival Johns Hopkins and took down UMass in the conference championship.
The offense was paced by their attack unit. North Carolina transfer Spencer Parks and classmates Joe Seider and Ryan Drenner all return this year. They will look to expand on their production to help push the Tiger’s offense further. Under nine goals a game means that the team will be in close games all season, which can exhaust a team by the conference tournament stretch.
Ohio State transfer Dylan Kinnear is pushing for time right away as the Tigers prepare for fall competition. The attackman will likely force the movement of one of the incumbents to midfield, as they are all dynamic players. Look for Parks to possibly split time between the attack and midfield, with the fall telling a lot about what the spring will look like.
The midfield is the question mark for the Tigers as three long time linemates all graduate. Players like Ben McCarty and Mike Lynch will have to make significant progress to account for the lost production in the middle of the field. Also returning are Adam Ceribelli, Dan Livingston, and Tyler Konen who have experience from 2015 that they wish to build on.
There is a wealth of freshmen talent coming to the midfield for the fall practice season as well. The Tigers picked up a lot of talented players in close proximity to Towson in hopes that they will build the reputation that Towson is growing in the state as a contender. Jonathan Mazza and Nick Muscarella are names that hope to break the lineup quickly in their careers.
The defense lost a veteran in JoJo Ostrander, but return many pieces to be a strength for Towson this coming season. Tyler Mayes and Pat Conroy return off the bench for the Tigers. Conroy holds an interesting position as he also faces off for Towson, most notably being the first option against Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament.
Mike Lowe and Andrew Cordes return, having started last season. They will be instrumental in the success of the Tigers as they need to replace a key piece to the defensive puzzle in Ostrander. Luckily for the Tigers redshirt senior goalie Tyler White returns. Having an experienced goalie in White will provide a foundation for the defensive schemes Towson employs this spring.
Towson is looking to make the move to a Final Four participant this spring. The last time the Tigers made it to the Final Four was 2001, when they made the run as the fun-n-gun tigers. After that loss to Princeton in the Final Four, they returned all but four goals from the previous season and were early favorites for the title the next season. The results were underwelling.
This time around the Tigers hope to build off the success to re-establish the program as a contender.
