Men's Lacrosse Picked 17th in Nike/USLacrosse Preseason Poll

PHILADELPHIA – USLacrosse Magazine has unveiled its 2018 Nike/USL Division I preseason Top 20, and the University of Pennsylvania holds the No. 17 spot in the national rankings.
 
The Quakers are second among Ivy League programs and one of just three Ancient Eight teams in the poll. Yale is fifth, while Princeton is right behind Penn at No. 18. A fourth Ivy, Brown, is among ten teams that were also considered for the poll.
 
Penn also is one of just eight schools that have teams ranked in both the men's and women's Nike/USL preseason Top 20 polls, as the Quakers women are preseason No. 12.
 
Penn will certainly know where it stacks up by the time Ivy League play rolls around in mid-March, playing four non-conference games against teams ranked in the preseason poll prior to that. After opening the season with Michigan on February 17 at Franklin Field, the Quakers travel to defending NCAA champion Maryland (preseason No. 2). That is followed by three consecutive Saturdays that see Penn hosting preseason No. 1 Duke (February 24), No. 9 Penn State (March 3), and No. 20 Villanova (March 10).
 
Penn went 7-6 last year, including a 3-3 mark in Ivy League play, and took Yale to quadruple overtime in the Ivy League Tournament before falling to the Bulldogs. The Quakers return their top 11 scorers from a year ago as well as their starting face-off man and goalkeeper. The roster is headlined by senior Connor Keating, a third-team USILA All-America last year, and includes three other players who earned All-Ivy recognition a year ago: junior Simon Mathias—who shared Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors with Penn goalie Reed Junkin in 2016—junior Tyler Dunn, and senior Kevin McGeary.