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Previewing Delaware’s 2018 Schedule

With a new coach for the first time in a long time, the Blue Hens look to usher in a new era for their lacrosse program.

By Chris Jastrzembski
Mark Campbell/Delaware Athletics

The Delaware Blue Hens are the 40th team in our 2018 schedule preview series and the third team from the CAA. The Blue Hens hired a brand new head coach in Ben DeLuca after longtime boss Bob Shillinglaw announced his retirement before the start of the team’s 2017 season.

Here’s the entire 2018 schedule:

Delaware’s 2018 Schedule

Date Road Team Home Team Special Notes Last Year's Meeting(s)
Date Road Team Home Team Special Notes Last Year's Meeting(s)
1/27 Colgate Delaware Scrimmage
2/3 Delaware Denver Scrimmage
2/10 Mount St. Mary's Delaware 18-5 W
2/17 NJIT Delaware First ever meeting
2/24 Delaware Monmouth 11-10 W/OT
3/3 Villanova Delaware 13-10 W
3/6 Mercer Delaware First meeting since 2012 (14-2 W)
3/10 Delaware Binghamton 13-9 L
3/17 Delaware Johns Hopkins First meeting since 2012 (8-6 L)
3/24 Delaware Rutgers 13-9 W
3/31 Fairfield Delaware CAA 11-7 L
4/7 UMass Delaware CAA 9-6 L
4/14 Delaware Hofstra CAA 11-9 L
4/21 Delaware Towson CAA 10-6 L
4/27 Drexel Delaware CAA 14-9 L

Delaware gets Johns Hopkins, Mercer, and NJIT on their schedule. They swap them with Bucknell, Manhattan, Navy, St. Joe’s, and VMI, so their schedule is lighter by two games than last year.

Let’s check out some notable games on this schedule:

Best Nonconference Game: vs. Villanova

The Wildcats were one of three impressive Blue Hen victories from a year ago, and Nova will be good again this year. They’ll be improved in some spots, including in goal with Matt Barrett.

Best Conference Game: vs. UMass

Delaware failed to earn a CAA win all last year, and they haven’t won in the conference since April 16, 2016 when they upset Towson. It’s a six team conference, but the CAA is still tough to play, especially in the final few weeks of the regular season.

Under The Radar Game: @ Binghamton

Binghamton took last year’s meeting, 13-9, but they have some question marks to answer. They’re a bigger question mark than Delaware due to those losses which include Tom Moore and Garrett Waldron, so the Blue Hens might be able to capitalize with their young core led by Charlie Kitchen and Matt DeLuca.

Possible Upset: @ Johns Hopkins

Mid-March isn’t usually the best time to see Hopkins play in recent years. They can lose some questionable games, but this year, they’ll have Delaware in between Syracuse and Virginia. The Blue Jays could lose focus on the Blue Hens, and it might mean a bad loss down at Homewood Field.

For other schedules and team rosters, check out our Men’s Division I matrix.

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