Salisbury Checks in Atop Final Nike/USA Lacrosse Division III Men's Top 20

Jim Berkman’s defensive mastery was on display in the national championship game, and as a result, Salisbury lifted its 13th national title and finishes the 2023 reason ranked No. 1 in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Division III Men’s Top 20.

Tufts, the national runner-up and the top team entering the NCAA tournament, is No. 2. The Jumbos were in search of a perfect season before running into the Sea Gulls.

Nike/USA Lacrosse Rankings

Division I Men | Division I Women
Division II Men | Division II Women
Division III Men | Division III Women

NIKE/USA LACROSSE
DIVISION III MEN’S TOP 20

Also considered (alphabetical order): Clarkson, Hampden-Sydney, Muhlenberg, Stevens

IN CLOSING

A quick look at the biggest storylines of 2023.

BIGGEST UPSET

In 2022, St. John Fisher lost just three games, the last of which was in the NCAA tournament at the hands of a Tufts-colored buzzsaw. Fisher was senior-heavy and dynamic on offense. It controlled possessions and knew when and how to put its foot on the gas. Preseason polls put St. John Fisher somewhere in the 15-19 neighborhood. Yes, a very talented senior class had graduated, but there were some bright young contributors in 2022, and it’s hard to imagine a bare cupboard after the year they had.

Well, 2023 did not go quite as well. St. John Fisher lost eight of the first nine games, with one postponement, early in the year. It plummeted from the polls, and it was clear that a rebuild was underway. There were battles in those losses, falling to RIT by just two, CNU by four and Ursinus and Muhlenberg by one. But as can happen with a young team, those close games more often seem to be losses than wins. St. John Fisher’s early season experience paid off in an excellent second half of the spring, as SJFC went 9-2 over the last 11 games. Four of the top five scorers return next season, and multiple freshmen in prominent roles will be a year better.

Possibly poised to return to the Top 10 in 2024, it was a stunner to see the start of 2023 go how it did. 

BIGGEST STATEMENT WIN

Other than the title game, this Swarthmore victory over Gettysburg felt like a seismic shift in the balance of power in Division III. Gettysburg had beaten Salisbury (which remains the Gulls' only loss of 2023), Washington and Lee, Ursinus, Stevenson and York … surely, it was going to handle little ol’ Swarthmore. This season, there was no “surely.” 

On April 8, Swarthmore, a team that was only well known in Pennsylvanian circles and the dark netherworlds of D-III message boards, led by the Mabbs boys, knocked off the blue-blooded Bullets. Swarthmore made a massive leap into the Top 20 the next week and climbed from there. In fact, Swarthmore liked the win so much, it did it again about a month later. 

NOT ENOUGH LOVE

Mea culpa. The Generals were outside of the top 10 for way too long this season. Hindsight is a fickle and vengeful mistress, but we must respect her. W&L made a convincing run in the NCAA tournament to silence even the most ardent of doubters. This team put up 20 goals 10 times this season. The Generals finished seventh overall in team offense with 17.52 goals per game. Scoring was never the problem. 

A three-game losing streak in the first half of the season is the most likely reason why pundits didn’t rate W&L, but when you look at those losses, two were in overtime, one against Lynchburg and one against Hampden-Sydney. And the third loss was against a surging CNU team chasing the No. 1 spot at that point in the season.

W&L’s run through the playoffs ended with a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Salisbury, but up until that point, the Generals were one of the most fun teams to watch in the nation. Not just because of the goals, but the play between the boxes and the end product of a squad that grew into itself throughout the spring.