ICYMI: Penn State starts 2024 with top 5 ranking

Penn State lacrosse will start its 2024 campaign ranked high in the polls. A year after making a trip to the Final Four, the Nittany Lions are once again one of the top teams in college lacrosse. What is the outlook for Penn State heading into 2024?

Penn State lacrosse is back at the top

Penn State lacrosse has returned to the elite level of the sport and entered this season ranked No. 4 in the preseason USA Lacrosse rankings. The Nittany Lions are coming off a Final Four run in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

During that semifinal game, Penn State lost to Duke 16-15 in overtime, a game in which a Duke player stepped in the crease for the game-winning goal. Since the referees couldn’t review that type of call based on the NCAA rules at the time, the Nittany Lions lost the game.

During the offseason, the NCAA did make a rule change that allows for that type of play to be reviewed. While it doesn’t change the result from last season, the rule change does benefit college lacrosse moving forward.

A stacked Big Ten

The Big Ten is one of the top conferences in college lacrosse in 2024, second to only the ACC. Penn State lacrosse is the top-ranked Big Ten team in the USA Lacrosse preseason top 20. The other teams to make the rankings were Maryland (No. 5), Johns Hopkins (No. 6), Michigan (No. 13), and Rutgers (No. 15). The only team not ranked to start the season in the conference is Ohio State.

Tough 2024 schedule

In addition to playing four top 15 teams in the conference, Penn State lacrosse will have a few ranked nonconference matchups as well. The Nittany Lions will host No. 10 Yale and No. 7 Cornell on back-to-back weekends to start the month of March. Marquette also received votes in this early poll, and it will be a challenging game as well.

Penn State will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves this season. As it currently stands, the Nittany Lions will play four games against the top 10 teams and six games against the top 15 teams out of their 12 total. That means that Penn State won’t necessarily have to go undefeated to get a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, but the experience of playing tough teams every week is always good for postseason preparation.

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