MINNEAPOLIS - The Midwest Lacrosse Conference has released its 2024 Men's Preseason Poll, voted on by the head coaches in the conference. The University of Northwestern was picked to finish third out of five teams.
Northwestern received nine points in the poll to earn its third-place billing, which is also where the Eagles finished last season. Lake Forest received 15 points and three first-place votes on its way to being picked to repeat as conference champions. Dubuque received the other two first-place votes and finished just one point behind LFC. Northwestern's 2023 season ended in an MLC semifinal loss at Dubuque. Northland and Cornell rounded out the forecast with seven and five points, respectively.
The Eagles will return plenty of experience in 2024, including three of its top four point scorers from a year ago.
Sam Moses (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) was the leader among them, leading the 2023 Eagles in points (27), goals (18), assists (9), shots on goal (45), man-up goals (3), while finishing second on the team in shots (69), and third in shot on goal percentage (.652) and caused turnovers (14).
Christian Mitchell (Oak Grove, Minn./PACT Charter School) will be back in purple as well after finishing 2023 second on the team in points (21), assists (8), game-winning goals (1) and man-up goals (2), and third in shots on goal (30) and shot on goal percentage (.652).
Head Coach
Jay Mayes brings back his primary face-off specialist in
Ryan Adkins (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville) this season as well. Adkins boasted a .710 face-off percentage in 2023 while also leading the team by a wide margin with 101 ground balls. Additional reinforcements for UNW's defense will be back as well, including
Jakob Montesi (Evergreen, Colo./Evergreen), who caused a team-leading 29 turnovers in 2023, and goalkeeper
Robert McHenry (Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong), who made 126 saves last season in 12 starts.
Northwestern will begin its season at home, weather-permitting, on Saturday, February 24th against Milwaukee School of Engineering.
2024 MLC Men's Preseason Poll
1. Lake Forest (3), 15 points
2. Dubuque (2), 14 points
3. Northwestern, 9 points
4. Northland, 7 points
5. Cornell, 5 points
*first-place votes in parentheses
