Just seven months ago, only a day or two after the team’s final game of the season, men’s lacrosse head coach Andy Copelan made a bold prediction.
“We lose a few big names (Penn State, Georgetown), but I really do feel that, with this realignment, this conference will be even better and much improved.”
Copelan’s words are looking more and more prophetic. Yesterday, Fairfield released the team’s 2010 regular-season schedule. This year’s slate boasts a myriad of impressive out-of-conference games, including Notre Dame and Maryland. Coupled with a revamped conference that includes Ohio State, Quinnipiac, Denver, and Air Force, it seems likely that the Stags will be pushed as hard as ever this season.
“Our 2010 schedule poses some real challenges and some real opportunities,” said Copelan in a recent press release. “We’ve added three non conference opponents who were in the NCAA tournament last year in Villanova, Notre Dame and Maryland and at least one of our games will be on national television.”
That televised game comes on April 24 against new ECAC opponent Denver, which finished 7-8 a season ago and concluded the season one spot behind the Stags in the LaxPower rankings. The game, which will be played in Hartford, Conn. at Rentschler Field, will be televised nationwide on ESPNU.
The team’s most notable games, though, likely come from their non-ECAC opposition. Following two home games at the outset of the season, the Stags hit the road for three consecutive games, beginning with a Mar. 6 game in against Villanova, which finished the year ranked eighteenth in the country a season ago and reached the NCAA Tournament. Then, just one week later, the Stags travel to the Kinkaid School in Houston for a neutral site game against Notre Dame.
The last time the Stags and the Irish squared off, Fairifeld recorded perhaps the most memorable game in program history: a 12-11 win that clinched a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Another notable out-of-conference game comes on May 1, when the Stags travel to Maryland to play the Terps, one of the nation’s premier lacrosse powerhouses. A season ago, Maryland finished atop the Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) standings and advanced to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals before falling to Syracuse. In addition, Copelan, who served Maryland head coach Dave Cottle for three years as an assistant, will make his first return to College Park since accepting the Fairfield coaching job in the summer of 2008.
Aside from the high profile out-of-conference games, Copelan is thrilled that the realigned ECAC give Fairfield the opportunity to play in some of lacrosse’s emerging markets.
“Top to bottom, our league will be one of the best in the country,” Copelan said. “We are looking forward to the challenge of playing in such a competitive conference.”
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