Sidelines

The team has plenty of confidence though.

"I expect a hard-played season that culminates in a good hard championship run," Laxcat senior defenseman David Ames said. "I won't settle for anything less."

The Laxcats open up against No. 24 Colorado School of the Mines at 1 p.m.

UA faces a new challenge this season with less players than ever before. The Laxcats typically have 30 people on their roster but this year they have only 21.

"I think we are headed down a mystery road this season," UA head coach Mickey-Miles Felton said. "We have some problems to solve but our goal has not changed and that is to get back to St. Louis and win the national championship."

The Laxcat offense will be centered around its attackmen. They have two returning seniors in Dan Price and Josh Sfara, who set a Laxcat record for goals in a season last year with 71. Sfara was also selected to a 13-member USILA all-star team that year.

"Josh is as much of a key on defense as he is on offense because he needs to hold the ball to give the defensemen a rest," Felton said.

In the first preseason poll ever announced by the USILA, the Laxcats are ranked third behind reigning national champion BYU and league rival UCSB.

Getting to the championship game is not going to be easy for them. There are six teams ranked from their division along with perennial powerhouse Whittier College, who is ineligible to be ranked.

"I don't think we are going to have a lot of cakewalk games this season and, to tell the truth, I do not want any of those kinds of games," Felton said.

UA will use a slower-paced offense this season due to the lack of numbers. That is where Price, Sfara and midfielders Chris Stinson, Max Webber and newcomer Dan McCarthy need to step up.

-by Dan Rosen

By the Numbers

2,010:

The amount of career points UA senior forward Adia Barnes has scored including last night's loss against Washington. She is the first UA female to break the 2,000-point barrier and she joins Sean and Bob Elliott as the only Wildcats to reach the milestone.