Tufts looking to continue NESCAC dominance despite heavy player turnover, new coach

For the seventh consecutive season, men’s lacrosse decisively won the NESCAC crown. Tufts beat Middlebury 20-14 in the NESCAC Championship game before playing its way to the final of the NCAA Div. III Championship. There, the team suffered a heartbreaking 14-13 loss to Salisbury University, which prevented the Jumbos from winning a historic three NCAA Championships in a row. Still, for the 15-strong players in the graduating class, reaching the final was an achievement in and of itself.

The coming year will be a challenge for the new senior class and the team as a whole, as long-time coach Mike Daly, who assumed the role in 1999, departed from Tufts this summer to begin a coaching position at Brown University. Daly is the all-time leader in coaching victories for the Tufts lacrosse program, with a record of 244-83, and was twice named the Div. III National Coach of the Year.

In Daly’s 18 years of coaching at Tufts, he introduced an innovative fast-breaking style of play that collegiate lacrosse had not yet been exposed to. Recognizing that over 60 percent of goals are scored in unsettled situations, Daly focused Tufts' program on taking advantage of fast-break and transition opportunities as opposed to traditional six versus six attacking plays. The method proved to be a clear success, as the Jumbos' offense scored the most conference and overall goals of any team in the NESCAC every year for the last eight years. 

“The style of play that we play is a lot of fun,” senior Zach Richman said. “It allows us to score a lot of goals but puts a lot of pressure on our defense. Our defense and our goalie always play really well, and that gives us the opportunity to win each game.”

Daly’s unorthodox strategy earned notice among other programs, most notably that of Brown. Brown started off with an unremarkable lacrosse program two years ago, but was transformed into an NCAA Div. I semi-finalist in part due to the influence of former Assistant Coach Sean Kirwan, who previously played and coached at Tufts

Tufts alumnus Casey D’Annolfo (LA '06) was tapped to fill the Jumbos' coaching vacancy. D’Annolfo played under Daly for four years at Tufts when Daly was the coach for both the lacrosse and football teams. As a coach, D'Annolfo successfully reformed the lacrosse program at the Taft School, helping to raise its national rank from 802 to the top 20 in just seven years.

“You get a little bit better every day, take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves,” D’Annolfo said. “Be on time, be respectful, be coachable. There are four or five pillars of what we do, and we’re just going to work at those things. The guys will operate with those rules and within those parameters.”

D’Annolfo will attempt to retain Daly's fast-paced style of play during practice in order to keep Tufts playing the high-tempo lacrosse that it is now famous for.

The program graduated 15 players last season,eight of whom were consistent starters in the team's 10-man line up. It will be a challenging transition for the rising seniors, who will now assume leadership roles for the 50-strong roster of players. Some stars of the senior class are Austin Carbone, who netted eight goals against Ithaca College in May, and Zach Richman, a starter who was the team’s third highest scorer last season, after John Uppgren (LA '16) and Jake Gillespie (LA '16).

“Austin Carbone and Zach Richman made big contributions last year, and I’ve assumed that they’re going to continue on that path,” D’Annolfo said. “[Seniors] Tyler [Olney] and Tucker [Mathers] are the stalwarts of the defensive end, but I still think there are a lot of positions that are going to be open. I’m really excited for the guys because they’re going to have the opportunity to potentially step in and play. That’s going to be really healthy for the team because there will hopefully be a lot of continuity for next season.”

The Jumbos said goodbye to the program's most decorated player, Uppgren, who graduated after leading the team in scoring for two straight seasons, becoming the program's all-time leading scorer and thrice earning All-NESCAC first team honors. Conor Helfrich(LA '16) was the NESCAC’s and Div. III’s leading face-off expert, and it was his skill that often earned the Jumbos the possessions needed to score goals. Both he and Uppgren will be playing in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). Uppgren scored two goals during his MLL debut in July in the Boston Cannons' 14-13 overtime victory over the New York Lizards.

“They’re such a great group of guys, such hard workers,” Richman said of the Class of 2016. “They represent the program and what Tufts lacrosse is really about in the best way possible. There will be a challenge to fill some of the spots that we have now with them leaving, but we have a lot of great young guys who are looking forward to the new challenge.”

Uppgren and classmate Jon Sax were recently hired to join the Tufts lacrosse coaching staff and they hope that their experience will help bring the team to victory. The new senior class will look to them for guidance as they transition into leadership roles. D’Annolfo expects the senior class to set the tone of Tufts' characteristic high level of discipline and lead by example in that respect.

The Jumbos aim to extend their NESCAC dominance for an eighth year. The main goal, however, is to take back the NCAA crown and win Tufts its fourth national title.