Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College men's lacrosse team achieved unprecedented success last spring and enters this season with raised expectations as they look to prove last year wasn't a fluke. 

The Yeomen put together a historic 12-5 season, which included a school-best 6-3 mark in the North Coast Athletic Conference as they qualified for their first NCAC Tournament as the fourth seed. 

Oberlin, which saw a school-record five players earn All-NCAC honors a season ago, cashed a league-best 1.75 man-up goals per game and also led the league with 10.5 caused turnovers per game.

"We have a lot of experienced players coming back that I am really excited about," head coach Ryan Polak said. "We had some good success last year and we are going to have to be even better this year if we are going to continue on this upward trajectory."

Oberlin, which was selected to finish fourth in the NCAC Preseason Poll, fired off 48.81 shots per game last year, which ranked second in the league. The Yeomen also produced just under 13 goals a game to finish fourth in the conference in scoring, but will have to replace a bulk of that production that came courtesy of the departed Tom Decker, who led the way with 39 goals.  

Thankfully, the Yeomen are fortunate to have a plethora of capable scoring options headlined by All-NCAC second-team selection and fifth-year senior Michael Muldoon, who led the team with 56 points on 37 goals and 19 assists last year. 

Sophomore Niko Maheras turned in an impressive rookie season and should see plenty of opportunities to add to the 36 goals he posted as a freshman. Seniors Ryan Blasberg (30) and former All-NCAC selection Max Cha (24) combined for 54 tallies, while second-year player Sam Ryu found the back of the cage 15 times in his initial season as a Yeoman. First-years Jacob Starcke, Solomon Brennan, and Jack Duffy should also factor into the mix as the season progresses. 

On the defensive end of the field, Kiernan Stone and JT Starcke make up one of the best defensive duos in the NCAC. An All-NCAC selection in 2022, Stone led all non-face-off specialists while finishing third in the NCAC with 100 ground balls in addition to tying for third in the conference with 32 caused turnovers. Starcke racked up 51 ground balls and was second on the team with 24 caused turnovers. Classmate Christian Pfennig was limited to just nine games a season ago and will certainly provide an additional boost to the Yeomen's rearguard. Newcomers Sam Duffy, Charlie Goodhue, David Belisle, Jackson Davies and Michael Dinkel will also be additional pieces for first-year defensive coordinator Chris Bronander. 

Despite appearing in just two games as freshman, sophomore Joe Barocas is slated to be the man in between the pipes for Oberlin after an impressive fall and preseason. Classmate Justin Bader and freshmen Jake Pillsbury and Noah Moylan will push Barocas for time throughout the year. 

The Yeomen open the season at home on Saturday against Chatham University at 4 p.m. The NCAC slate commences at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex on March 25 against Wooster. 

Fans will be able to watch most games live online while all home games will also be carried on the Oberlin Sports Network OTT app on any Roku, Amazon Fire, or Apple TV enabled device.