Posted: Feb 24, 2017
The Wilmington College men's lacrosse team was picked to finish seventh in the nine-team Ohio Athletic Conference preseason poll, the league announced recently.
"The importance of this season will lean heavily on integrating 12 freshmen that were brought in this season, with some of the veterans of the program," said Wilmington head coach Bryan Habick. "We have been working hard this preseason and now we are ready for the season to begin. It's been a month of competing against our teammates and we are now looking forward to playing at Adrian College on February 25th," said coach Habick.
Wilmington was picked ahead of Muskingum and Heidelberg. John Carroll earned five of the nine first-place votes, and will be the preseason favorite. John Carroll is followed by Baldwin Wallace, which earned the other four first-place votes, Otterbein, Capital, Mount Union and Ohio Northern.
The Fightin' Quakers are coming off a 6-8 season in 2016, but are returning five upper classmen that will immediately impact this year's team.
Senior Paul Koerbel (Maineville, OH/Kings) boasted a 13.77 GAA last season. With a returning, and more experienced defense in front of Paul this year, Habick is expecting Koerbel to continue to improve and be very successful this year.
Senior Reid Delaney (Wooster, OH/Wooster) tallied 25 goals and 41 points, while senior Chris Hein finished with 19 goals and 8 assists.
Junior Jhordan Lang (Sunbury, OH/Big Walnut) is poised for another big season after scoring 19 goals and 12 assists last season.
Additionally, Jake Ladendorf (Crown Point, IN/ Crown Point) will be a returning junior defenseman who will bring a lot of experience to a young group around him.
Four newcomers are poised to have a big season for the Fightin' Quakers. Habick is excited to see the development and impact that Connor Judge (Dublin, OH/ Dublin Scioto), Matt Willenbrink (Middletown, OH/ Bishop Fenwick), Jorden Grossen (Wooster, OH/Wooster) and Andrew Miller (Plain City, OH/ Jonathan Alder High School) will have on this program.
"Grossen and Willenbrink will have immediate impacts on the defensive side and they both bring a wealth of experience from the high school ranks to this program," said Habick.
