Towson men’s lacrosse finished just 6-9 a season ago, but the Tigers won four of their last five regular-season games. Now, head coach Shawn Nadelen is tasked with replacing four starters, including last season’s leading goal-scorer Kyle Berkeley.
Graduate attacker Nick DeMaio, who led Towson with 50 total points in 2023, returns for the 2024 season, but the Tigers will look for a group of sophomores — Joaquin Villagomez, Mikey Weisshaar and Ryan Schrier — to build on their success from a season ago. That trio made up half of Towson’s top six point-scorers, combining for 56 goals and 30 assists.
“On paper we return quite a few, but those guys last year were freshmen, so it’s not like we returned juniors and seniors that have started,” Nadelen said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 30.
Towson will also need to replace goalkeeper Evan Long. Nadelen hasn’t named a starter yet, and he’s comfortable with that. Luke Downs, Matt Nilan and Alex Kauffman will all get opportunities in goal, according to Nadelen.
Downs and Kauffman saw limited game action a season ago, while Nilan redshirted in his first year at Towson.
“There are really three guys in the goalie position that emerged as kind of the top guys that we wanted to continue to take a strong look at because they earned opportunities,” Nadelen said. “… People say sometimes if you’ve got three goalies you don’t really have any goalies, but I think we’ve got three good ones.”
The 13th-year coach pointed to the 2017 season, when the Tigers reached the national semifinals despite the goalkeeper position not being settled until late in the season.
“We’re not apprehensive about playing a couple guys if we need to,” Nadelen said. “[In 2017] we ended up going back and forth between starters throughout the regular season and into conference play, then midway through conference play Matt Hoy really solidified the starting spot and took us to Memorial Day weekend.”
As for the defensive side, there’s plenty of turnover there, too. Senior Colby Barsz, who made the switch from long pole to close defense last season, is the lone returning starter on that end. Barsz caused 18 turnovers in 2023, tied for the most with departed starter Garrett Zungailia.
“We lost quite a few [key defensive players] coming into this year,” Nadelen said. “… There’s a lot of inexperience. We’ve got guys, but again, it’s getting them experience, getting them understanding what it really takes to be successful possession by possession and working together.”
The changes for Towson lacrosse for the 2024 season stretch beyond the players on the field. The NCAA approved the expansion of video review in men’s lacrosse. Under the new guidelines, coaches can now use a challenge until the last four minutes of regulation of all games and referees can review a play at their discretion at any time during a game.
Nadelen, however, doesn’t expect Towson to use the new review system much this year, if at all. He said he doesn’t think it’s feasible with the limited amount of quality camera angles at venues like Johnny Unitas Stadium.
“I think that’s going to be place to place,” he said. “If it’s an ESPN broadcast game or something, you’ve got multiple camera angles and in tight. … We talked to the refs about it before our scrimmage last weekend and they’re like, ‘We’re probably not going to see much from that anyway,’ so is it really worth potentially burning a timeout?”
Towson begins its season on Feb. 6 when it visits preseason No. 5 Johns Hopkins.
For more from Nadelen, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Larry Maurer