Nick Gorman made his first start of the season in No. 18 Towson's 9-6 victory over Hobart on Saturday, and the junior defenseman appears slated to start again for injured junior Andrew Cordes.
Cordes, who started the first six games for the Tigers (5-2), suffered an injury in practice last week, and coach Shawn Nadelen – who declined to elaborate on the injury – said Monday morning that Cordes has not yet been cleared to practice and appears doubtful for Tuesday's 7 p.m. home game against No. 15 Ohio State (6-2).
"Nick was a starter for us last year and has worked his way into getting back up there in that fourth spot," Nadelen said of Gorman, who picked up 40 ground balls and caused 12 turnovers last season. "We've got a little bit of a luxury there with Nick and his experience and Brett Hall moving in there as a freshman. Hopefully, we'll get Andrew back on the field soon."
Cordes, who had 13 ground balls and one caused turnover so far this year, had been playing alongside senior JoJo Ostrander and junior Mike Lowe since the preseason and had helped the defense rank fourth in Division I in fewest goals per game allowed at 7.3.
Nadelen acknowledged that the absence of Cordes saps the defense of some chemistry.
"There's definitely a chemistry that's been formed, and you lose a little bit of that," he said. "They were working well together. They understood how they were going to play and what they were capable of and relied on each other.
"Nick and Brett Hall are the two guys who stepped in for Andrew against Hobart, and those guys have been getting reps and now they're getting more reps with Andrew being out of the mix. So that chemistry has been there, but it needs to continue to develop, and those guys need to sharpen up their games with a little more responsibility on their plates."
Towson will get a chance to enact a small measure of revenge when the Buckeyes visit. Ohio State knocked the Tigers out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2013 with a 16-6 thrashing. But Nadelen said that storyline has been muted within the Towson locker room.
"There hasn't really been too much talk about that," he said. "We have a select group of guys that were part of that team in 2013, and I'm sure those guys have it in the back of their heads. But we also have a lot of new guys and it's just an opportunity in front of us to play another quality team. We want to step on the field and put our best game together that we can, and hopefully, that will put us in position to get a win.
"So I think our guys are excited about the game. We're on spring break right now, so it's pretty much all we have to focus on right now. The guys were excited [Sunday] night to practice and excited for Ohio State to come into Towson and compete."