Albany Unveils 2017 Schedule

The Albany Great Danes are the 70th team in our 2017 schedule preview. The Great Danes finished 12-4 overall, and 6-0 in America East play. Albany was upset in the AE semifinals in overtime against Hartford, before losing in the NCAA First Round to Syracuse, 11-9, after leading for the majority of the game. Let’s dive into their schedule.

Albany

The Great Danes once against host Colgate and Princeton in scrimmages on February 4 and February 11 respectively, before opening the season with their annual trip to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse on February 18. They’ll continue to be on the road the week after as they take on Drexel in Philadelphia on the 25th.

The team’s home opener is on March 1 against UMass at John Fallon Field, before they head up to Ithaca three days later to take on Cornell. Albany returns home on March 11 to host defending Big Ten champion Maryland at Casey Stadium. The team will split their home games at Fallon Field and Casey Stadium this year. America East play opens up on March 18 in Burlington against Vermont, followed by a nonconference tilt in Buffalo against Canisius on the 21st. UMass Lowell comes to town on the 25th, before the Great Danes wrap up the month in Cambridge against Harvard on the 29th.

AE play carries over on April 1 as the Great Danes take on Stony Brook on the road, before they return home to face UMBC on April 8. Albany will have a 10 day break before going to the Southern Tier to face Binghamton on the 19th. The team wraps up the regular season with two games at Casey Stadium, first on the 22nd against Yale, followed by the season finale on the 29th against defending America East champion Hartford.

Scott Marr’s group loses a key contributor of attack in Seth Oakes. Oakes was tied for the team lead with 44 goals and was second in points with 55 last season. He decided to leave school to go to the NLL. The team still has leading scorer Connor Fields and junior Justin Reh as starters from last year, along with Bennett Drake, who was a key contributor coming off the bench, as well as Jake Cullen. John Maloney departs on midfield, but Kyle McClancy and Adam Osika are the starters returning to the Capital District. Eli Lasda, Sean Eccles, John Glancy, and Jack Burgmaster are other notable middies. And let’s not forget the return of Ky Tarbell from injury, as well as the debut of redshirt freshman Cougar Kirby, who has unbelievable hair. Josh Babcock and James Burdette are gone from the defense, which does retain Stone Sims and Erik Dluhy. A.J. Kluck, Troy Reh, Joe Eddinger, Chaunce Hill, and Dalton Roundpoint will play roles on defense as well. Derrick Eccles was one of the more defensive midfielders on Albany, which is known to have their midfielders play both sides of the field at times. The Great Danes lose everyone’s favorite goaltender Blaze Riorden, but hope JD Colarusso can be the real deal as redshirt junior. Zach Ornstein returns as the top face-off man, with freshman TD Irelan as a guy to watch as well.

With Albany releasing their schedule, the America East becomes the ninth conference to have all their teams release their schedules.

To see every team’s schedule and which one’s we’ve highlighted, check our our master schedule list.