College Lacrosse's Top Senior Defensemen

With less than a week until the Entry Draft, it is interesting to see that there are a good number of defensemen in the player pool. Of the 18 players available, nine of them are either defenders or short-stick defensive midfielders.

Four of the league’s six teams lost a starting defender to the Waterdogs in February’s Expansion Draft, and Waterdogs head coach Andy Copelan only drafted four defensemen. This means that five of the league’s seven teams will be looking for a defender or two before the start of the season, and it will be interesting to see how these head coaches go about doing that.

Will there be a trade or two? There are also two more drafts that these coaches, notably Ben Rubeor (Atlas LC), Andy Towns (Chaos LC), Tim Soudan (Chrome LC), Nat St. Laurent (Redwoods LC), and Andy Copelan (Waterdogs LC), will be able to utilize, the first being the Entry Draft on Monday, March 16. The PLL College Draft will take place on April 21, and there are eight star defensemen that we are watching as we approach the midway point in the college lacrosse season.

As a result of the league’s unique playoff format, which features a competitive bracket to determine college draft seeding, the first round is set to have Chris Bates and the Archers select first overall, followed by the Atlas, Waterdogs, Chrome, Chaos, Redwoods and the defending champion Whipsnakes. The Waterdogs are projected to have the first pick in rounds two, three and four, and the rest of the pack will be in the same order as round one with exception to the handful of picks swapped in the eight trades that we’ve seen so far leading up to this draft.

As of right now, it doesn’t appear that a defenseman will go early in the College Draft, however. With the number of top attackmen available in the College Draft and a limited number in the Entry Draft, and with the number of defensemen available in the Entry Draft, it looks like attackmen, midfielders, and faceoff specialists will be off April’s draft board before a defenseman is taken. Regardless, there are eight college lacrosse seniors that will serve as immediate impact players once they get selected.

The first is Virginia LSM Jared Conners, who is seen by many in the college lacrosse world as the best defenseman in college lacrosse. At 6’5” and 210 pounds, Conners has played in every game that he has dressed for as the Cavaliers starting long-stick midfielder. He has 16 goals and nine assists in his career, including three goals and one assist already in 2020. He is comfortable playing in the middle of the field and pushing in transition, and his 55 caused turnovers can be attributed to his ability to pressure ball carriers in the open field. He has seven caused turnovers in six games this season.

Conners is possibly his best when it comes to grabbing ground balls. He has 193 in his career, including four and a half per game this season. He is on pace to shatter his sophomore single-season ground ball mark of 59, and he could be one of the top defenders available in April’s first round.

Boston University’s Reese Eddy is another LSM that we are keeping an eye on. He spent his first two seasons at Canisius, where he had 28 caused turnovers and 83 ground balls in his sophomore season. As a junior in 2019 with Boston, he set a program-record with 34 caused turnovers and 83 ground balls, and in six games this season, he has 31 ground balls, 16 caused turnovers, and an assist. Cornell’s Brandon Salvatore is our third long-stick midfielder. As a junior, he was unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection and as an all-around defensive player that can play at LSM, close defense, and on face-off wings, he is a very flexible piece that can be of value to any team. He has 16 ground balls, seven caused turnovers, and a goal this season.

Syracuse’s Nick Mellen has been limited to one game this season due to a leg injury, but he has shown throughout his career why he is one of the nation’s top cover defensemen. Over the last two seasons, he has guarded the opponent’s top offensive threat on his way to gathering 101 ground balls and 55 caused turnovers in his career. A redshirt senior, Mellen is wearing the number 11 this season, which has been passed down through Syracuse to the unit’s leader, and once Mellen returns from injury, he will hope to continue to lead the number one team in the country. Notable PLL attackmen that Mellen has covered in his career include Connor Fields (four points in 2018), Justin Guterding (three points in 2018), Chris Cloutier (two points in 2018), Jules Heninburg (eight points in 2018), and Ryder Garnsey (one point in 2019).

“I’m a competitive guy. My goal is to hold the opponent to zero points,” said Mellen in an interview with syracuse.com’s Lindsay Kramer. “You don’t want to see your opponent succeed if your job is to shut them down.”

Jack Kielty is another ACC defenseman that could help lead a PLL defense this summer. In three games this season for Notre Dame, Kielty has eight ground balls and four caused turnovers. He has 100 ground balls and 26 caused turnovers in his career, along with two goals and two assists. Fellow ACC defenseman JT Giles-Harris was the 2019 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and he has played in all but one game in his Duke lacrosse career. He has 110 career ground balls and has caused 68 turnovers, and through seven games this season, he has 19 ground balls, 11 caused turnovers, and a goal. One of the best defensemen in college lacrosse, the question mark next to Giles-Harris is that, like Michael Kraus, he has committed to Duke football for the fall of 2020, meaning that he would likely miss the 2020 PLL season.

Penn’s Mark Evanchick is a back-to-back First Team All-Ivy selection while playing against the opponent’s top offensive player in 2018 and 2019. He has 32 caused turnovers in those two seasons, and he already has four ground balls and three caused turnovers through five games this season.

Nick Cardile is the final name on this list. As a freshman and sophomore for the Penn State Nittany Lions, he had 30 ground balls and 13 caused turnovers. He topped all those numbers in 2019 as a junior when he had 40 ground balls, 22 caused turnovers, a goal and two assists in 18 games, and in five games this season, he has two goals, seven ground balls,

and he’s caused eight turnovers.

Every team in the league could use a defender or two going into 2020, so it will be interesting to see where these eight fall on the draft board. Over the remainder of this week, we will continue to preview the top college players by position, and in the month leading up to the College Draft on April 21, we will have full mock drafts and analysis on the best senior lacrosse talent in 2020. Stay tuned