ANNAPOLIS --- A deeper look at Navy's forgettable 2013 lacrosse season --- what with its school record for losses (10) and consecutive losses (seven) still more than fresh --- went up within the last hour.
But there are plenty other odds and ends worth passing along about the 3-10 Midshipmen as they head into the offseason, both in terms of reviewing what happens and trying to figure out what is to come.
1. Navy graduates exactly 40 percent of its starts from this season.
Goalie Nolan Hickey, defensemen Jay Christopher and Austin Miller and midfielder Bryce Dabbs were all seniors and each started all 13 games, so Navy figures to have a different look next year --- at minimum on the defensive end.
Hickey finished his sole season as a starter with a .530 save percentage and a 10.38 goals against average. The 6-foot-7 Hickey provided more-than-capable play well into the season (a .573 save percentage and 8.69 GAA entering the final five games), giving Navy a chance to collect some wins before the schedule stiffened down the stretch.
"We were solid at the goal position," coach Rick Sowell said. "We felt he’d be solid and it played out that way."
2. Hickey's replacement could be marginally more experienced than he was this year.
The senior entered the season having played all of 30 minutes (the second half of a loss to Jacksonville last season). John Connors, Hickey's top backup this spring, logged 52 minutes as a freshman. Third-stringer Paul Zimmerman played 95 seconds.
Regardless of the numbers, Navy will break in a new starter in the cage for the second consecutive season.
3. In the micro, the most lingering question of the season will be what happened to Tucker Hull.
Hull wasn't perfect his first two seasons, but seasons with 38 and 47 points suggested the Mids would rely on him heavily as a junior.
But Hull's struggles reflected the offense's as a whole. He had just 13 goals and eight assists, shot a career-low 24.1 percent and generally just never got going. He had just nine points in Navy's last nine games.
"I think we expected him to have just as good a year if not better, and I suspect next year we’ll get more of what we thought we were going to get this year," Sowell said.
4. Navy didn't get much help from its sophomore class.
Attrition of various kinds has already whittled the Mids' class of 2015 down to nine players. This was the group that was entering the academy at the same time Sowell arrived.
Of those nine guys, only two (midfielders Alex Heyward and Gabe Voumard) played in at least 10 games this season. Only three played in more than three contests.
There are a couple ways to interpret that, but it's already a distinct possibility this turns into a fairly hollow class in terms of overall production. That's a thought to tuck away for the next couple years; it's easy to imagine the Mids being described as "young" in 2015.
5. There's no getting around the faceoff issue.
Navy tried six guys on faceoffs. None managed to win more than 50 percent of their draws, with freshman Sean Reilly (31-for-62) the most promising long-term option after evenly splitting his tries.
Navy's overall mark of 45.8 percent was actually improvement over the 42.0 percent from 2012, but the Mids still aren't securing enough possessions. That was especially stark in the final three games, when Navy was a meager 23.1 percent (15 of 65) in rivalry games with Maryland, Army and Johns Hopkins.
"I think we have a couple young kids," Sowell said. "We have a couple plebes who work extremely hard. We have a young man Carlos [Hargett] who was hurt most of the year. I’d like to hope they’ll be that much better. We have a young man coming in who we think is pretty talented. That was a big question mark before this past season and it will be a big question mark next seasons. We’ll just have to see how it plays itself out."
6. The schedule (or at least its order) will be changing.
The Patriot League adds Boston University (which debuts its team in 2014) and Loyola next year, so there's two extra games for Navy to wedge into its schedule.
Count on Detroit being a one-year opponent, opening a mid-February weekend for a nonconference game. Navy will open Patriot League play in late February, with order of conference games expected to be Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Boston University, Loyola and Army.
The Hopkins game will remain in the same spot, with the annual date with Maryland moving to May and out of the April 3-10 range it has occupied since 1993.
7. The freshman class offered Sowell some optimism for the future.
Among the freshmen who earned considerable playing time this season:
* Attackman T.J. Hanzsche, who had 10 goals and an assist while starting eight games after not even playing in three of the first four contests.
"We knew he was going to be a good player," Sowell said. "It was just a matter of when. He didn’t play those first few games, but once we got him in there he didn’t seem to be fazed by anything. We certainly feel his future is bright."
* Defenseman Jules Godino got into a dozen games and started the season opener.
* Attackman Patrick Keena played extensively on Navy's extra-man unit and had three goals and four assists.
* Sowell described midfielder Kevin Wendel as "a nice surprise" after he played in all but one game this season.
"He needs to get strong, which he will, and we see a bright future for him," Sowell said.
Sowell also was upbeat about the work put in by Connors and defenseman Pat Menezes, who could both be in line for extensive playing time next year.
"No doubt we feel like not just the plebes but the kids at NAPS and also the recruits in high school, we feel like we have some pretty good players coming into the program," Sowell said.
--- Patrick Stevens
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