2014 College Lacrosse Preview: Siena Earns Status as Favorites in the MAAC

The MAAC is anarchy. There's no other way to describe it. It's not as brutal as THUNDERDOME!, but much of its membership are competitive equals. The leverage that the MAAC promotes makes the conference's race for postseason tournament inclusion one of the strongest in the nation, and that renders the league's preseason poll somewhat misleading.

To the press release:

The Siena College Saints were selected as the top team in MAAC Men's Lacrosse in 2014, according to the league's seven head coaches.

Siena, last year’s MAAC Championship runner-up, went 8-9 overall and 4-2 in the MAAC in 2013. The Saints will return 2013 First Team All-MAAC selections Colin Clive and Conor Prunty as well as 2013 Second Team All-MAAC selections Richie Hurley and Adam Hall. Siena’s head coach John Svec, who was named Anaconda Sports MAAC Coach of the Year in 2012, returns for his third seasons at the helm of the Saints.

Here's how the voting shook out (the league didn't release details on first-place balloting, so it gets the your-Mom's-end-time-for-a-party treatment):

Based on the point tabulations some tiering in the voting is visible: Tier I -- Siena and Detroit, almost neck-and-neck at the top of the hierarchy; Tier II -- Marist, almost as far away from Tier I as the Red Foxes are from Tier III; Tier III -- Canisius and Quinnipiac, in lockstep but in different ways; Tier IV -- Manhattan, closer to Monmouth than they are to the Griffs and Bobcats; and Tier V -- Monmouth, a back-bencher with feelings.

As for preseason all-league honors, Siena's Conor Prunty was named the conference's preseason player of the year. The league did not give out individual offensive and defensive honors, which means that Prunty can rule the MAAC's preseason with a despotic fist. Here's the full preseason All-MAAC team, featuring five attackmen, two goalies, and no specialists (the MAAC spins the wheel of preseason honors; where it stops is only known by the Fates):