The 2021 college lacrosse season featured some of the highest profile transfers the sport has seen, headlined by Michael Sowers ditching Princeton for Duke. The 2022 season doesn’t have any Sowers level transfers to boast of, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some very capable players that will be donning new colors this upcoming season, and I’d like to talk about them.
A guy like Sean Lulley (Penn to Duke, Attack) has somehow snuck under the radar, but make no mistake, Lulley put up BIG numbers in the covid shortened 2020 season. His 30 points over 5 games made him one of the leading scorers in the nation and despite not playing any meaningful lacrosse since that 2020 season, I expect he’ll do big things for Duke playing alongside O’Neill and Robertson.
Everyone has known for a while that Will Bowen was ditching UNC for Georgetown in 2022, so this wasn’t a surprise. But what is…Gibson Smith is coming back, so the Hoyas now have two of the top 5 long-poles in the country anchoring their defense. Owen McElroy being back in cage doesn’t hurt either considering he was one of the best, if not the best, goalie in the country last season.
My favorite transfer, and one of the biggest surprises was Richie Connell leaving Richmond for Denver. Connell will be asked to pick up some of the slack offensively as Denver graduated some stupid talent on attack last season. Expect Connell to step in and be one of Denver’s top two or three leading scorers. There is no way he won’t be an impact right away.
There are more that I’ll discuss as well, Mitch Bartolo (Penn to Rutgers, A/M), Jonathan Donville (Cornell to Maryland, A/M), Jason Reynolds (Richmond to Notre Dame, D), Kevin Mack (Michigan to Stony Brooke, A), Bobby Gavin (Virginia to Syracuse, G), Caton Johnson (North Carolina to Ohio State, G) and Mustang Sally (Richmond to Loyola, SSDM).
Audio Version…
