When Towson welcomes No. 6 Johns Hopkins (1-0) to Johnny Unitas Stadium on Tuesday night, the Tigers might be opening their season without starting attackman Joe Seider.
Seider -- a Sparks resident and Hereford graduate who led the Tigers in goals with 23 and added five assists as a freshman in 2014 -- is dealing with an unspecified injury that allowed him to return to practice on Friday, coach Shawn Nadelen said. If Seider is unavailable, the starting attack could be composed of senior Max Siskind, junior Spencer Parks and sophomore Ryan Drenner.
"We had three scrimmages, and that was the lineup in those three scrimmages," Nadelen said of Siskind, Parks and Drenner. "Obviously, Joe brings a different level. When you compare him and Max Siskind just physically, there's a difference of about eight inches. But they bring unique things. Joe's got a really hard outside shot and a physical presence off the dodge. Max's quick and explosive. So it doesn't really change too much of what we do. Each guy brings a little different dynamic to the field, but offensively, what we do overall doesn't change."
Junior midfielder Ben McCarty, a fixture on the second line who posted nine goals and three assists last spring, is also battling injury and returned to practice on Saturday. And sophomore long-stick midfielder Tyler Mayes (15 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers) and junior short-stick defensive midfielder Dan Livingston (5 GB, 4 CT) have been sick.
If Mayes can't play, junior Patrick Conroy may start and junior Joey Pfister would back up Conroy. Livingston's absence would open the door for sophomores Jack Adams and Tyler Young to start at short-stick defensive midfielder and give freshman Adam Ceribelli some playing time.
The injuries and illnesses are the last thing a coach would want heading into a game against a Hopkins team that blitzed UMBC, 16-4, on Saturday. But Nadelen said no one is shedding any tears for Towson.
"Obviously, you want your top guys out there, but we're going to put the bodies out there that can play and compete at the level that we need them to, and we know we're going to give everything we have against Hopkins," he said. "It's more about how we execute and play at a high level. We're not using any crutch. There's no talk within our practices about this guy's out or that guy's out and we're changing things up. We expect the guys out there to play at a high level and we expect everybody to perform."