ITHACA, N.Y. – After reaching the conference postseason in each of the three seasons of competition within the Liberty League, the Ithaca College men's lacrosse team return a veteran squad for the 2022 season and hope to make a strong postseason run this spring.

The Bombers went 6-4 and with a 4-2 mark in conference games in the somewhat abbreviated 2021 season as a handful of teams played shortened schedules or failed to field a team at all last spring. Ithaca fell to St. Lawrence University in the conference semifinals as they have used this past offseason to strengthen the team's positional depth and talent pool.

Ithaca is once again coached by Jeff Long who returns for his 35^th season at the helm of the program as he is the all-time leader in coaching victories and is one of the most accomplished college lacrosse coaches in the history of the sport. Making a return to South Hill as a fulltime assistant of the program is familiar face in Torin Varn. Varn was a volunteer assistant for the Bombers in 2020 and most recently coached on East Hill at Cornell during the 2021 season. Prior to his stints at IC and Cornell, Varn coached at Hofstra University, where he completed a four-year run as an assistant coach for the Division I women's program from 2016-2019.

Ithaca will be a seasoned team to open the 2022 campaign with 21 upperclassmen, which includes 14 seniors on the roster. Demetri Lowry an All-Liberty League First Team honoree will look to anchor the defense as he was also named a Preseason All-American by USA Lacrosse Magazine, Inside Lacrosse and by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA). He started all 10 games in 2021 and was third on the team with 27 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers. He caused 1.60 turnovers per game, ranking him fourth among Liberty League leaders.

2020 Liberty League Rookie of the Year John Sramac and Jake Erickson (All-Liberty League First Team) will co-pilot the offense after leading the Bombers last year. Erickson was tops on the team in points (41) with 16 goals and a team- as well as league-best 25 assists. Sramac was second on the team in scoring, netting a team-best 26 goals and handing out 11 assists for 37 points. The duo was ranked among league leaders in points per game at 4.10 (Erickson, 2nd) and 3.70 (Sramac, 4th) respectively. Ithaca also welcomes back Connor Brumfield (All-Liberty League Second Team), who recorded 17 points on 13 goals and four assists.

Connor Thornton returns as the starting goalkeeper as the senior was named Liberty League Defensive Performer of the Week on two separate occasions last season. He finished the 10-game campaign with 132 saves with a goals against average of 12.02.

Ithaca College has also welcome 14 newcomers into the program as they'll look to make immediate impacts on the field for the Bombers. As released by the conference office on Feb. 18 IC was slotted fourth in the Liberty League Preseason Poll, which saw defending NCAA Division III champs RIT selected as the unanimous favorite to win the conference.

The Tigers have won nine-straight Liberty League titles and open the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country according to the 2022 Inside Lacrosse's Division III Preseason Poll and the USILA Division III Preseason Coaches Poll.

2022 Liberty League Preseason Poll/Outlook

Ithaca opens its 2022 slate on Wednesday, Feb. 23, traveling to SUNY Oneonta for a 3 p.m. start time.