Student-athletes at Onondaga Community College, one of the top JUCO programs in the nation, will miss their second straight spring season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school announced Friday.

Heartbreaking for the students . We will be back . #family https://t.co/Ff5dwvvCUv

— Onondaga CC Lacrosse (@OCCLACROSSE) January 15, 2021

“Student safety and the safety of our entire campus community is our top priority,” OCC president Dr. Casey Crabill said in a statement. “Due to COVID-19 we made the difficult decision to not participate in intercollegiate sports competition during the spring semester.

“We hope conditions will improve enough so our teams can practice later in the semester. We made the decision as early as possible so our student-athletes could make informed decisions about their futures as well. Our 17 athletics teams have won 16 national championships. We look forward to the time when we can resume full competition and celebrate future Lazer championships.”

When we last saw the men's lacrosse team, the Lazers were 2-1 after an 18-4 defeat at the hands of Nassau Community College on March 7. They were coming off a national championship in 2019.

The women's team had yet to play a game in 2020 before the pandemic began. In 2019, the Lazers lost in a national semifinal to Harford Community College.