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return 10 of their top 11 scorers, a group headlined by junior midfielder Madison Cyr, who finished with a team-best 41 goals last season. In a preseason poll of league coaches, the Lions were tied for third with Ohio State. Defending national champ Maryland was picked first and Northwestern second. The Penn State men are coming off a disappointing 7-6 finish last season. The Nittany Lions had gone 12-5 in 2013 and had been hoping for a second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament, but their regular-season finish wasn't good enough to bring them an at-large bid, and the Colonial Athletic Association wouldn't let them take part in the league's postseason tournament after the announcement that they would be joining the Big Ten in 2015. Penn State was picked to finish third in the Big Ten this year behind Johns Hopkins and Maryland. The Lions must replace three-time All-America goalie Austin Kaut, but Connor Darcey "has pretty much picked up where Austin left off," coach Jeff Tambroni said. Darcey, a redshirt sophomore, was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after finishing with 15 saves in Penn State's 15-8 season-opening victory over Vermont. The Lions' top returning scorer is T.J. Sanders. A junior attackman, Sanders has personified the team's ups and downs the past two years. He finished with 44 goals as a freshman but saw his scoring total dip to 23 last year. Tambroni said the team is looking to field a more balanced attack as it gets set for Big Ten competition. It did just that in its victory over Vermont, as Sanders and redshirt sophomore midfielder Matt Flo- rence both scored three goals, while soph- omore midfielder Mike Sutton scored twice. "The good thing about this year is it's just not going to be about T.J.," Tambroni said. "We've got a lot of guys that do a lot of little things to help us move this cause forward." The Big Ten is likely to give a lift to a sport whose epicenter has long been on the East Coast. The Big Ten Network is planning to air at least 20 games and stream others online in the hope of attracting Mid- western viewers. Michael Calderon, BTN's senior vice president of programming and digital media, told The Washington Post that the network is aiming to "do a really good job covering the sport for those that know the game – Maryland fans, Johns Hopkins fans – and do a great job of exposing the game to maybe those that haven't had a chance to watch it before." The league's participants see it as a win- win scenario, with the elite teams providing instant credibility and the Big Ten providing a platform with which to create new fans. Tambroni said Maryland and Johns Hop- kins will "definitely help right away. We're going to greatly benefit from their tradition, from their fan bases, because of how rel- evant those programs have been in college lacrosse for so many years. Vice versa, I think Johns Hopkins, Maryland and Rut- gers are going to benefit greatly from the brand of the Big Ten." ■

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