Andrew Whitley couldn’t help but take a second to pause after parking his car in the lot adjacent to Bellarmine’s Knights Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

He stood, according to his account, for 30 seconds, peering into the offices of the men’s lacrosse program and reflecting on the 330 days that preceded this week. The pain and loss of the 2020 college lacrosse season, the numerous Zoom calls, the COVID-19 tests, all representative of the unprecedented change in the last 10 months.

This weekend, Bellarmine will take the field to usher in the 2021 college lacrosse season against Mercer at 11 a.m. ET.

“Wow. We have finally made it,” he thought. “We have finally made it to a point where I can see the end of the tunnel and we’re going to face this thing off.”

Eight hours south in Macon, Ga., Chad Surman sat in his office in Homer and Ruth Drake Field House, thinking about the road that led him to become a head coach. After five years as an assistant, he became the interim head coach, and a couple months later, the official head coach of the Mercer men’s lacrosse program.

For the better part of 10 months, Surman has had a nice view of Five Star Stadium, where his Bears will host Bellarmine in the first game of the Division I college lacrosse season.

“At times, it hasn’t fully sunk in,” Surman said. “I’m sure it’s going to hit me when the national anthem starts playing, or maybe it’s a few minutes into the first quarter. It will certainly become real on Saturday.”

The first two Division I games of the college lacrosse season take place on Saturday, but Mercer’s matchup with Bellarmine will be the season opener. After months of waiting, and just a few weeks of preseason training, two Southern Conference foes will face off in a rare January tilt. Denver hosts Utah in the second game of the afternoon.

The Bellarmine-Mercer result will surely be important, but both head coaches know that the moment is significant outside of the score. The chance to usher in the most unique lacrosse season in the sport’s history, and the spotlight that comes with it, is enough to get the players excited.

“This just brings a little hope to everybody,” Whitley said. “There’s an entertainment component to this. It provides the world at large a little bit of hope. The college lacrosse world probably wouldn’t normally pay this much attention to Bellarmine and Mercer, but this has a little bit of juice to it because everyone knows if this game goes off, the season is on.”

Once the dust settles and the first shots have been fired, the SoCon rivals will look to get their seasons started on the right note. For Mercer, this season provides a chance to carry the momentum from a shortened 2020 season.

The Bears stood 6-1 when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the season. They were about to start what could have been a successful conference slate when play was halted. Surman said he expects the same level of lacrosse from a program that lost just four seniors to graduation.

Mercer features a strong attack led by All-SoCon preseason honoree Sean Goldsmith, who dropped 42 points in just seven games last season. The junior will look to join High Point’s Asher Nolting as the top attackman in the conference.

“Sean is one of the most high-IQ lacrosse players I’ve ever been around,” Surman said. “He carries that with a true passion for the game … He’s going to try to make the right play, whether it’s a ground ball drill or a SoCon matchup.”

Whitley is excited to face a conference opponent to see where his team stacks up after his first season at the helm. With a roster that’s mostly intact from 2020, he believes his team could compete for a SoCon tournament bid.

The Bellarmine offense will be led by Landon Trout, who poured in 13 goals and 10 assists in eight games last season. Luke Legnard (13 goals) and Brayden Brown (13 goals) will each provide firepower on the attack unit.

Come Saturday, Whitley said he doesn’t expect the cleanest lacrosse after just three weeks of preseason. That said, the players on both teams know that the lacrosse community will be watching and celebrating along with them.

If all goes according to plan, there will be a national champion crowned in 2021. There will be overtime games and SportsCenter Top 10 plays. The lacrosse community will remember that Bellarmine and Mercer started it all.

“When you look back at the 2021 college lacrosse season,” Whitley said, “there are going to be some ridiculous plays and transcendent seasons, but I do believe if you go back in history and rank the 10 most significant games of the season, regardless of the seasons we have, I do think this game will be one of those 10.”