Posted: Feb 13, 2020

Seahawks picked to finish fifth according to coaches

Salve Regina has been picked to finish fifth in the CCC according to a pre-season poll.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Two-time defending Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Men's Lacrosse Tournament Champion Western New England will head into the 2020 campaign as the preseason favorite as determined by the 2020 CCC Men's Lacrosse Preseason Coaches' Poll.

WNE collected 79 points in the poll and eight of a possible nine first place votes on the ballots cast by the nine men's lacrosse head coaches last week.

The Gulls earned the second spot in this year's poll with 71 points and the remaining first place vote. Like Western New England, Endicott comes into the year hoping to continue its run of success. Last year's CCC Tournament runner-up, has reached the CCC championship in 14 of the last 15 years, earning seven league titles in that span. As the No. 2 seed in last year's bracket, it defeated No. 7 seed Wentworth and No. 3 seed Roger Williams before falling to WNE.

Roger Williams landed in third in this year's poll with 63 points, followed by fellow CCC Tournament semifinalist Curry with 52. Salve Regina rounded out the top five with 39 points in the voting.

Nichols (37 points), the University of New England (29), Wentworth (23), and Gordon (12) made up the bottom half of the poll in that order.

Patrick Cooney returns for his 17th season at the helm of the Seahawks. The Seahawks return four of their top five scorers from a year ago including All-CCC attackman Pat Leary (Wakefield, Mass.). Leary led the Seahawks in scoring with 41 goals and 14 assists. Leary was named a captain of this year's squad along with Ethan Robson (Lincoln, R.I.), and Chris Sheehan (Wading River, N.Y.). The Seahawks have been to the postseason 12 times under Cooney's direction and will try to make it three straight trips to the CCC postseason this spring.

The CCC men's lacrosse season gets begins on Saturday, Feb. 15 as Salve takes on Clark in a non-conference matchup. The Seahawks will also get conference play started as they host UNE on Saturday, March 14. The remaining teams will kick off league play the following week. The top seven teams in the conference standings at the end of the year will qualify of the 2020 CCC Men's Lacrosse Championship Tournament. Three quarterfinal games will be played on Saturday, April 25, followed by the semifinal round on Wednesday, April 29. The championship game will be played on Saturday, May 2 with the winner earning the CCC's automatic qualifier into the 2020 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Tournament.

Click HERE to view the whole 2020 CCC men's lacrosse schedule.