The Hofstra University men’s lacrosse team hasn’t seen the conference tournament since the 2021 season, where the season ended in the championship round. After suffering back-to-back losing seasons for only the second time in his 18-year tenure, head coach Seth Tierney says that the men’s lacrosse team will look different in 2024.

It starts with an arduous out-of-conference schedule.

“We’re definitely excited about it,” Tierney said. “It’s the program’s first time going down to Navy and getting to play at Marine Corps Stadium. Playing at Rutgers, then home against the University of North Carolina and Yale make for a great test.”

The Pride are set to play four teams ranked inside USA Lacrosse Maganize’s preseason top 20. North Carolina has long been known as a lacrosse powerhouse with five national titles and a Final Four appearance as recent as 2021. A few key players remain from that team, including graduate student Lance Tillman, who scored 36 points last season. And it’s not like Hofstra can let down its guard once conference play starts; they welcome No. 10 Yale University in the middle of conference play. Tierney doesn’t mind the added difficulty to the schedule, though.

“There’s a yin and a yang aspect to having a very difficult out-of-conference schedule,” Tierney explained. “There is more than one way to arrange your out-of-conference schedule. I prefer to challenge my team regardless of the results. I know these tough games early in the season will help us grow before March 16th when our conference opens up against Fairfield.”

The ultimate goal for this season is to return to the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament, but it won’t be easy to make the tournament while playing teams like University of Delaware and Stony Brook University to close out the season. Delaware, last year’s conference champions, came into the season ranked No. 16 in the preseason poll. The Pride fell by one goal to Stony Brook in an intense win-or-go-home game, the victor being the last to enter the league tournament. The result was a devastating loss to the program.

 “The CAA is always a brawl,” Tierney admitted. “There’s always yelling, screaming, fighting and physical play. There’s always one-goal games.”

The Pride are ready to exact revenge on how last season finished. Hofstra did not qualify for the conference tournament with a CAA record of 3-4. In response to last season’s unsatisfying end, the team has adopted a new philosophy.

“We were disappointed we lost in a tiebreaker to miss the CAA tournament,” Tierney said. “This year we’re remaining focused. The guys understand that just because a game is at the beginning of the conference schedule, it should [still] be treated like it’s your last game. You have to make every game the most important game of the season.”

Tierney got the guys to understand that no game is a gimme. In terms of the off-season, he hasn’t focused too much on skills and drills. Instead, Tierney has spent the fall preparing the guys for the season ahead, especially after dealing with serious injuries the last two seasons. This off-season’s goal was to stay healthy in the fall and focus on team depth.

“This is a contact sport. Injuries will happen,” Tierney said. “Unfortunately, we’ve had the worst of it the last two years. But before we left for the break, I had a conversation with the other coaches about who was the next guy in. Who’s the next attacker we put in? Who’s the next midfielder? Who is the next defender? No team is playing at their best when their top players are injured. So as a team, we focused on preparing everyone to see the field. If one of our top three at a position goes down, I’m confident that who we put in will fill the void well.”

That doesn’t mean anyone’s given up on the team yet – certainly not Tierney himself.

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do,” Tierney said. “We are a team of tough people, and we won’t let injuries ruin our season again.”

Despite the team being the healthiest it’s been in several years, according to Tierney, they are also idle coming back from winter break. The fall season back in October was a good test for the Pride to get their feet wet. Tierney worried about how little time they have before their first games; the team has a “short runway” with their first practice on Wednesday, Jan. 17, and the first scrimmage 11 days later.

“We don’t have a lot of days. We don’t have a lot of time. These practices aren’t about proving to everyone who we are. This short time is about proving to ourselves what kind of team we are gonna be,” Tierney said. “Are we gonna come back strong and ready to put in the hard work?”

Looking ahead, it’s a matter of who’s going to be on the turf and how they’ll learn and grow while they’re on it.

Tierney will be looking to his upperclassmen captains to lead this team on and off the field. One of them is faceoff man Chase Patterson, joined by sophomore Blake Cooling and graduate student Sam Lutfi.

“I know these guys well and they want to be here,” Tierney said about the team. “They want to be part of the mission. And when we all work together, the team buys into the mission.”

Among the transfers is JT Roselle, a defender native to Long Island. His last season was at University of North Carolina and the previous three were at Marist University. The graduate student will add to a defensive line that ranked first in the CAA in goals against last season. In his career, Roselle has recovered 99 ground balls.

“We’re very excited to see what the long stick midfielder can do,” Tierney said. “He’s done a wonderful job in his time at Marist and North Carolina. This is his last year of college lacrosse. He will bring so much experience to help our freshman recruits.”

The freshmen are not to be slept on, according to what Tierney saw after the HEADstrong Foundation scrimmages.

“In goal, we brought in Shea Kennedy; he’s been impressive,” Tierney told the Chronicle. “He’s played better than our expectations could have ever thought.”

The freshmen have ample upperclassmen to learn from this year.

“We brought in two faceoff guys, Chandler Caster and Owen Bosak. With them to come in behind Chase Patterson is perfect; they have a seasoned ve
teran to learn from,” Tierney said. “And on defense, Colin Roark and Kyle O’Grady have done a good job adapting to the college level.”

All that’s left is to get to the field and see if that team will play up to that potential.

“I’m excited for us to be here,” Tierney asserted. “As a coach, it drives me crazy sitting in a chair and doing things that don’t involve a whistle and teaching. I’m excited to see how what we did in the fall translates to the season. We’re ready for the season.”

Michelle Rabinovich contributed reporting to this story.

Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman/Hofstra Athletics