Samuel Barber
MSMU Class of 2022
(2/2022) Although the winter sports season amongst all three divisions is still in full swing, it is never too early to start analyzing and looking ahead at the 2022 spring sports season. While the three cornerstone sports at Mount St. Mary’s (bowling, men’s & women’s basketball and indoor track and field) are continuing to put together successful seasons with multiple accolades and school records being broken, the anticipation and overall excitement around all of the varsity teams has never been higher. This is a spring season that will be highlighted by plenty of firsts, as well as new head coaches. Athletes and fans alike will certainly have a diverse pallet to choose from this year.
Baseball:
Out of six varsity spring sports that Mount St. Mary’s offers, there is no team receiving more hype than the baseball team. The 2022 season is ushering in a completely new era of Mount St. Mary’s baseball. The excitement is so real that it is beginning to mirror that of the 2007 and 2008 teams, which was the last time that Mount St. Mary’s played in the NCAA Tournament. The offseason hiring of new head coach Frank Leoni is undoubtedly the leading reason as to why the excitement is bursting at the seams.
Leoni hails from Marymount, which is a Division-III school out of Virginia. The rookie head coach is being looked at as a catalyst to transition from a controversy-riddled past two seasons, which saw plenty of tensions between the former coaching staff and players. However, there are a multitude of reasons as to why Leoni is being seen as the saving grace of a struggling program. For starters, he has coached Rhode Island and Marymount to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2005 and 2021, respectively. Secondly, there are a lot of reasons to believe that he will institute his high-powered offense at Mount St. Mary’s.
A new coaching staff is without a doubt a necessary component to the revitalization of the program, however, there are a slew of offensive components that will spark success for this team down the stretch. Three of the biggest playmakers from a season ago are Brady Drawbaugh, Ryan Fisher and Ryan Haddaway. Drawbaugh led the team in RBI’s (24) while Fisher ranked first in runs (23). The addition of a conference-leading five JUCO-transfers is going to be a big piece to the puzzle.
Men’s Lacrosse:
After an electrifying 2019 season that saw the Mount claim a regular-season conference title, expectations were high for another successful season. Instead, the Mount crawled to a dismal 4-9 record. Despite having plenty of offensive outlets, a similar outcome for the 2022 campaign can be expected. Head coach Tom Gravante will surely look at the likes of Brendan Doyle and the McMahon twins of Connor and Jared to step up, as the two leading scorers in Luke Frakeney and Matt Haggerty are gone.
Much like a majority of the varsity teams at the Mount, the men’s lacrosse team loaded their schedule with a lot of top-tier squads. Most notably, this includes road trips to Delaware, Georgetown, and North Carolina, as well as home tilts with mid-major powerhouse programs Mercer, Towson, and VMI. A daunting schedule can become a double-edged sword. It can either prove to be beneficial and allow a club to earn signature wins, or it could become a slippery slope and have your team on the wrong side of the .500 mark.
Women’s Lacrosse:
The outlook for the women’s lacrosse team is a complete opposite from their male counterparts. This team has all but one player from the 2021 team that captured the conference crown over archrival Wagner. Out of any spring team, the women’s lacrosse team has the most pressure on themselves to repeat as conference champions. The 2021 campaign featured an unblemished conference mark (11-0). All eyes are on graduate students Alayna Pagnotta (43 goals in 2021), Beanie Colson (21 goals in 2021), and Zoe Hurlburt (14 goals in 2021). That trio of fifth-year players will be essential to the success of this team down the stretch, especially in conference play. Meanwhile, seniors Erin Anderson and Jordan Groover will be relied on heavily from head coach Lauren Shellchock.
Coach Shellchock has crafted a gauntlet of a schedule. The eighth-year head coach has had a plethora of success over the past two to three seasons, however, there has been a recurring theme in those three seasons: teams have gotten off to incredibly slow starts. This year proves to be different with a two-week March swing that is highlighted by games against Furman, High Point, and Ohio State.
Softball:
No team at the Mount was robbed of a chance to showcase their postseason talent more than the softball team. Due to a weather cancellation, the Mount was unable to play a final game against Wagner. Due to the team’s late season success, the 2022 team has plenty of opportunities to earn signature wins in California and North Carolina. For the first time in nearly a decade, the Mount will be hosting a three-team tournament in mid-March (Cornell, Morgan State, Mount St. Mary’s). Outside of St. Francis PA, the rest of the conference seems to be wide open. If the Mount is able to solidify itself in the early portions of the season, then it could shape up to be one of the best seasons in Mount softball history. Mount St. Mary’s has not had a .500 or better season since 2010, when the team compiled a 25-25 record.
The losses of Kaylee Stoner and Lexi Donovan will certainly send seismic waves from an offensive perspective. The former led the team in runs with a monumental 26. For Donovan, the graduate student’s versatile presence will be missed, as she was in the top three in multiple statistical categories.
An exciting component of this team is the amount of young talent. The freshman class from a season ago wasted no time bringing talent to Emmitsburg. Led by the likes of Abigayle Perry and Bridgette Gilliano, there is a lot of hype for the athletes to build off their success from a season ago.
Women’s Water Polo:
To say that the women’s water polo team had a rocky inaugural season a year ago is an understatement. The Mount produced a dreadful 0-15 record, which saw the team never get close to a 10-goal margin in a particular contest. Throughout the offseason, second-year head coach Alyssa Diacano is stressing a multifaceted approach to this season, which is one that focuses on an uptick in offense while also developing a smothering defense.
Coach Diacono will certainly have plenty of opportunities to build upon as the season goes on, especially with home matches against East Coast powerhouses Michigan and Princeton. From a player’s standpoint, Ana Louisa Cotta, who led the team in goals a season ago (18), is looking to build upon a successful freshman season. Emily Van Kerckhove and Riley Thompson are also two big scoring outlets, 14 and 11 goals a season ago respectively, and will be relied upon heavily.
Mount St. Mary’s will have their first home event of the spring sports season on Feb. 16 as the women’s lacrosse team hosts in-state foe, UMBC.
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