Coach Matt Hatton called McDaniel's defense the strength for the upcoming season. It's a determination made on several movable parts.
The graduation of long-stick midfielder Matt Mummert, who led the team in caused turnovers (17) and ranked second in groundballs (51), may be the key to the defense's configuration.
Fifth-year senior Nelson Hannahs (24 groundballs, six caused turnovers) is the most effective option at long-stick midfielder, but the development of junior Ryan Hennessy and freshman Alex Schunk could give the Green Terror the flexibility to keep Hannahs on close defense.
Hannahs is "not the same player as Matt, but I don't think we're going to be in bad shape at that position at all," Hatton said. "Our second and third guys are pretty good, too."
If Hannahs stays at long-stick midfielder, the starting close defense could be composed of seniors Nick Sicuranza (13, 4) and Preston Ketchum (10, 2) and junior Alex McCoy. Freshman Zac Bitzer is also in the mix, according to Hatton.
Sophomore Christian Dallmus is slated to open the season as the starting goalkeeper after he recorded a 6.46 goals-against average and a .572 save percentage in 2011. But he is getting some competition from seniors Brad Motley and Ty Wittelsberger.
"We have two seniors and neither one of them is that far off," Hatton said. "They're both very good, and they're both very hungry, and they've both played a good bit over their careers. I don't think they're going to let him walk away with that job. So we're happy to have competition. Obviously, you don't want to go into a season playing multiple goalies. So we're going to let some scrimmages sort that part of it out."