MCLA’s Cream of the Crop: Texas State 2015 season preview

(Photo: Texas State Lacrosse)

Although the year was a great one with an outstanding finishing record, Texas State wasn’t able to secure a tournament berth with another LSA Tournament loss to Texas. The Bobcats will be a whole new team in 2015, though, with many losses to graduation. This is part of an ongoing series during which we will focus on one of the MCLA’s top teams each day, counting down till Christmas to the true “cream of the crop.”

Last year

Record: 13-2

Postseason finish: LSA Tournament Championship

Quick season recap: Eight games into the season, the Bobcats were garnering national recognition after an undefeated start before suffering their first loss to also-undefeated Florida State in late March. From that point on the team would go 4-1 through the remainder of the regular season, with its only loss from that point coming to eventual MCLA semifinalist Chapman. However, the season would come to an abrupt end in a one-goal loss to Texas in the Lone Star Alliance championship to end the Bobcats’ tournament hopes.

Roster losses: Offensively, this team is drained of several playmakers, with two of its three leading players in points having graduated: Andy Uhl and Adrian Hanner combined for 130 points last year as the Bobcats’ starting attackmen. In total, 17 players graduated from last year’s LSA-contending Texas State team, so it could definitely provide a tough adjustment in 2015. Will Laurel, a senior captain and the starting goalie for the Bobcats in 2014, had an incredible season with a 5.17 GAA and .648 save percentage, and he’ll be sorely missed in front of the net as well. However, head coach Kyle Saunders cited the graduation of long pole Patrick Franklin as the biggest void from last year’s roster, as a shutdown defenseman whose skills will be hard to replace. The losses add up for the Bobcats, but it’s not all doom and gloom in San Marcos, Texas according to Saunders. “We graduated a lot of goals last year. That being said, we reloaded really well.”

This year

Who to watch for: Liam Kelly, senior attackman

With the absence of the aforementioned Uhl and Hanner, the star of this offense will likely be Kelly. A graduate student in his final year at Texas State, the big-bodied Kelly will have to be the constant go-to on this roster if the offense can reestablish itself. At 6-foot-5, 195 pounds, he poses a strong scoring threat against any defense in the LSA, as he proved last year with a conference-leading 59 goals. Expect to see the attackmen around him notch an uptick in assists, as both starting members of last year’s attack posted career-highs in assists. Bucky Desadier, a junior midfielder who netted 27 goals last season, could also see a surge in production if he’s able to take advantage of the open space that defenses allow should they choose to focus all attention on Kelly. Senior midfielder Jeremy DiGiovanni will be another major cog within this unit, as will freshman Dillon Hanner (little brother to previously mentioned Adrian), to provide a balanced front on the offensive side of the ball.

They’re dangerous if last year’s momentum carries through and a hot start turns into a hot finish under a new head coach. It won’t be easy with a hefty bulk of last year’s starters being replaced, but this team has the right schedule to catch the eyes of fans around the country with early-season match-ups against Colorado and Colorado State, two teams that have combined for the MCLA’s last three championships. A game against an exciting Virginia Tech team that secured a tournament appearance in 2014 is also looming. If Texas State’s start includes enough defensive fortitude to halt these three dynamic offenses, we could be seeing the Bobcats on a national stage soon. That’s far easier said than done, though, and this is a team that has a lot of hurdles to get past before national recognition can be the focus. First and foremost, this is a team that will need to find a way to get past Texas, which has won the conference’s automatic tournament bid in four consecutive years. “The end goal for us every year is a LSA championship,” Saunders said.

Achilles’ heel: Inexperience and inconsistency. One of the growing pains of a brand new roster is the potential for the team’s collective inexperience to culminate in a downhill tumble, and this is a team that’s susceptible to such a turn. Can a new goalie (whoever ends up winning the currently open competition between Jackson Grimes and AJ Anderson) fill the shoes left behind by Laurel? Will this offensive unit become one-dimensional with only a limited amount of last year’s stars returning? Can a new defensive unit prevent tough early-season match-ups from sliding down a slippery slope without the ultra-reliable Franklin as its shutdown defender? These are a lot of glaring question marks that will mean the difference between a quality, stand-out year for Texas State and a potential let-down year for the Bobcats.

Trey Lanthier is a lacrosse reporter and editor at WCSN, as well as a contributor for Inside Lacrosse. You can reach him at treylanthier@gmail.com or on Twitter, @TreyLanthier. 

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