Washington College has released its schedule for the 2015 season. Here is a breakdown of the slate that awaits the Shoremen, who went 18-2 last year and advanced to the semifinals of the Division III NCAA tournament.
10: Washington College could welcome back four players who scored at least 10 goals each in 2014. The return of a combined 98 goals from senior attackman Stephen Luck, junior midfielder Sid Looney, senior midfielder Grant Hughes and senior faceoff specialist Michael Trapp will be critical for an offense that lost a total of 123 goals from four players who graduated.
9: The Shoremen moved into second place in the Centennial Conference with their fourth league title in 2014, but they are still nine short of the leader. Gettysburg has won 13 conference crowns.
8: Washington College is scheduled to play eight games away from Roy Kirby Jr. Stadium in Chestertown. That is the most road contests in the regular season for the program since 2006 when that squad also played eight away games.
7: The Shoremen will play seven games in March, but that's an aberration. They played eight contests in the third month of the year in each of the previous three campaigns before participating in just six games in March in 2011.
6: Washington College graduated six first-line players from the 2014 squad. The impact could be especially felt on offense, which must fill the voids created by the departures of midfielders Hunter Nowicki (36 goals and 41 assists) and Kodie Englehart (11, 20) and attackmen Jim Cusick (46, 10) and J.D. Campbell (30, 7).
5: The Shoremen could return as many as five starters from last year. A pair of close defensemen in senior Dan Pulzello and junior Brad Wollman headline the group.
4: Washington College's longest homestand of the season is four when Centennial Conference rivals Muhlenberg, Ursinus and Dickinson and Salisbury visit between April 4-18. It will be the third time in five years that the program will have four consecutive home games.
3: For the third consecutive year, the Shoremen will end the regular season with back-to-back games against league foes Swarthmore and Gettysburg on April 22 and 25, respectively. But order was switched in the 2013 and 2014 campaigns with Swarthmore playing in the regular-season finale.
2: Washington College will tangle with two opponents that qualified for last spring's NCAA tournament. The team will face Amherst in Owings Mills on March 17 and welcome Salisbury.
1: Of the four Shoremen who made the first three All-American teams, only one is coming back. Trapp won 67.3 percent of his draws and collected 171 ground balls, but he also posted 12 goals and six assists.