3. Rutgers Makes Its First NCAA Tournament Appearance Since 2003
Rutgers pushed the envelope from 2016-18 as a team at least in the NCAA tournament discussion, but the Scarlet Knights ultimately fell short. Last year, Rutgers provided a glimmer of hope by taking Penn State down to the wire in the regular-season finale, only to get blown out by Penn State in the opening game of the Big Ten tournament.
For Rutgers to finally take that next step, Adam Charalambidesm, who returned after missing two straight seasons to score 47 goals last year, needs to take over games. He should be one of the nation’s top attackmen if healthy. Zack Franckowiak is a key defensive midfielder, and transfer Moriah Yousefi could be an impact player at the X.
A rigorous schedule will be difficult to overcome, but maybe Rutgers can be a version of last year’s Penn State team — one who’s yet to break through but has the pieces to do so.
4. Princeton and Michael Sowers Make a Run
Michael Sowers has set Princeton’s single-season points record in each of his first three seasons. The dynamic attackman continues to improve and is already Princeton’s all-time leading scorer with 255 points.
The returning Tewaaraton finalist will be motivated as a senior to help guide Princeton to the NCAA tournament, but his sights are likely set on the Ivy League tournament first. The Tigers have only once played in the Ivy tournament in his career (2017), losing to Brown in the first round.
The Ivy League is loaded, with Yale, Penn and Cornell representing considerable contenders, but with a motivated Sowers guiding them, the Tigers could make some noise.
5. Hobart Leads the Nation in Scoring
All eyes are on Penn State and its vaunted offense, but don’t look past a Hobart offense that returns six of the top seven scorers from 2019’s ninth-ranked offense (13.94 goals per game).
Eric Holden set a program record with 67 points in 2019, and he’s back to lead the way. Ryan Archer (24 assists), Jason Knox (36 goals), Justin Scott (26 goals), Derrek Madonna (32 points) and Tommy Mott (25 points) are all back, too.
After taking a look at Hobart’s schedule, it looks like this team is going to light up the scoreboard.