2023 Men's Top 30: How Penn State Fared vs. Projections

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2024, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2023.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next month or so.

PENN STATE MEN’S LACROSSE

Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason/Final Top 20 Ranking: Unranked/4
2023 record: 11-5 (4-1 Big Ten)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Penn State owned the Ivy League, beating Yale, Penn and Cornell in non-conference play and Princeton in the NCAA tournament. Attackman TJ Malone (39 G, 34 A) enjoyed a stellar senior year and was one of the best players in the postseason for any team. Nine Penn State players got to 10 goals, and Jack Fracyon seized the goalie job and posted a 56.2 save percentage. But most of all, the Nittany Lions were unified in believing they could flip things immediately after a 3-11 season and proceeded to do exactly that, pushing Duke to overtime in the program’s second NCAA semifinal appearance.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Back-to-back losses to Marquette and Maryland in late March were the only real wobble for Jeff Tambroni’s bunch, which promptly ran off four consecutive victories to earn the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Defenseman Jack Posey’s injury in the first half of a quarterfinal defeat of Army meant he couldn’t play in the semifinals a week later, and the absence of an emotional leader from the field might have hurt every bit as much as the skill he brought to bear during a strong season.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

Considering the year-over-year change, the entire year might as well count as the highlight. But there’s no arguing with the 10-9 quarterfinal defeat of Army and the ensuing celebration as the most rewarding moment of the spring for the Nittany Lions.

VERDICT

Nobody is going to confuse this Penn State team for being as talented as the 2019 iteration that made it to Memorial Day Weekend for the first time. And yet the 2019 bunch was overwhelmed in the semifinals, and these Nittany Lions were free and loose and might have made it to the final were it not for a call that would have been overturned if replay was permitted. The overtime loss to Duke probably hurt in the moment, but Penn State should savor all but maxing out.