Rivier players celebrate their GNAC quarterfinal win at Merrill Field last May. They're hoping to reach the conference finals this season after falling in the semis last year. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Their season ended in disappointment yet again at Merrill Field last spring.

But it wasn’t the end of an era for the Rivier University men’s lacrosse team. In fact, far from it.

Remember, in today’s post COVID world, the designation “senior” doesn’t quite end a college athlete’s career. The extra year of eligibility is often used for grad students, and Rivier has a few keys on this year’s team that should be just as powerful as a year ago.

A good deal when there has to be a feeling of unfinished business for the Raiders, who are off to a 3-1 start (1-0 GNAC) heading into today’s contest at Curry College. Meanwhile, the Raider women, who made strides last season, are 2-2 to start, 1-1 in the GNAC, and host Salve Regina tonight at 7 at Merrill Field.

“We’ve got the right guys in the room to get it done,” Jay DeLanoy, who this month has begun his 14th season as the Raiders head coach, building arguably the most successful men’s program on campus. “Just got to get it done.

“There’s other teams that I don’t know if they’ve got the same amount, but every team out there is in the same situation. If they’ve got a grad degree program available to their athletes, they can utilize the same benefit. Early in season I’ve only looked at a couple of teams out there, so I don’t know who’s got the gread students back. But we do.”

Bingo. That group includes experienced goalie Sawyer Gagnon, defenseman Adam Hailey, a real key in middie Michael Ference of Salem, fellow Boscawen midde Coby Mercier, high scoring attack Connor Eck, and defensean Robert DelPrete.

That’s some grad program.

The mid-February storms postponed the start of the season for over a week, but the Raiders got some indoor time in the area. “We did as much as we could do,” DeLanoy said. “The same thing every day, end the day better than you started it. All the guys are great with that attitude, that approach, and that mindset. So we still made strides, we still made improvments. It wasn’t enough to hold us back.”

So now the Raiders are going to try to get over that hump that has kept them from a GNAC title. Saint Joe’s of Connecticut came in and upset them in the 2023 tourney, and last May Dean College beat Riv in another tourney tilt, this one a semifinal.

“I think it’s just mindset,” DeLanoy said when asked about reversing the trend. “And leadership. And culture. The grad students, they’re more than ready for it, they’re all stepping up, all in a leadership role whether they’re a captain or not. Everybody’s a leader in everything they do, how they act. Everybody’s got to be all in.”

And hungry. DeLanoy could sense it.

“There’s more focus,” he said. “There’s more of everything. There’s more of all the good stuff. We’ve got a great group of seniors as well, we’ve got 11 seniors.”

The Raiders have always been big on the intangibles, feeling they lead to success on the field. The captains have developed a “big brother system”. Every senior has a sophomore little brother and every junior has a freshman little brother. “They developed it themselves which kind of proves out we appointed the right guys in charge who are ready to lead, ready to do extra things to create the right sheer passion for what everybody wants.”

The strength of the Raiders is their depth, especially offensively. “We don’t have to depend on one or two guys to score,” DeLanoy said.

For example, in their season opening win over Wheaton two weeks ago, their top scorers contributed assists but not goals. And on the defense side, “it’s just experience and willingness to believe in the other guy because he’s been there as long as you’ve been there.”

Gagnon provides the experience – he was recently named GNAC Goalie of the Week – but there’s a senior who will also see some time, Sam Tibbetts.

“He’d be starting at a lot of other places for sure,” DeLanoy said. “So he’s right there. We’ll try to give him some starts, give him some minutes and take a load off of (Gagnon).”

Then there’s senior midfielder Chris Heitmiller, a Bishop Guertin alum who not only has talent but is like having a coach on the field.

“He is the smartest lacrosse player I’ve ever coached, and I think you’ve heard me say that before, We have situations when guys work in twos on the offensiv side. Conner Eck, who is a good player, his development the last two years I give more credit to being paired with Heitmiller than any coaching I’m doing, for sure.

“Chris is a very quiet kid. But he nudged me on the shoulder and said ‘That’s 99.'” Meaning 99 goals. He got his 100th in last weekend’s 10-7 loss to Roger Williams. Ference and Eck are also 100 goal scorers and Colby Mercier is also closing in.That’s a lot of firepower.

DeLanoy can certainly sense the difference in the program from 10 years ago, and even beyond that. Merrill Field wasn’t Merrill Field back then, or part of a $4.5 million athletic facility on the hill.

“Just try to imagine walking on the campus 10 years ago and the difference in the entire school,” DeLanoy said. “It’s a different campus, it’s a different school, and it’s a different athletic department.”

The conference is wide open. Saint Joe’s of Connecticut won it last year, but they needed one-goal wins in the quarters and semis to do it. But that’s how far the sport has come in the GNAC.

“Absolutely,” DeLanoy said, noting that the transfer portal is not as big of a tool for the Raiders as perhaps other schools or other sports.

“It’s there,” DeLanoy said. “We look at it. But not super active in it. If it’s guys I have familiarity with and recruited them and they chose elsewhere prior, more guys reach out to me to make the change to Riv as far as our transfers than me reaching out to guys.”

The reason is often the unknown. “You can look at a guy who didn’t get playing time on another team and that’s the reason he’s transferring,” DeLanoy said. “But you don’t know what kind of player he is if you didn’t recruit him in the original recruiting process.”

In fact, in the win over Wheaton, a former Wheaton player, Cole Ronalater, played well for the Raiders in the opener.

How does this team compare to the Raider teams of the last couple of years?

“I think we’ve got our top end talent is the same,” DeLanoy said. “Our depth has improved. We’ve definitley got a set of second line midfielders that we run with no hesitation. In previous years we mixed them in more reserveed.”

But in the opener the second unit took one out of every three runs. That strategy, if it continues, will keep Raiders fresh in the second half, and especially in fourth quarter.

Keep that in mind when May arrives.

Rivier’s Sarah Lachance, center, set the school record for career points with her six goals in an early season win. (Courtesy photo by Kyle Prudhomme/Rivier Athletics)

Rivier’s Sarah Lachance, center, set the school record for career points with her six goals in an early season win. (Courtesy photo by Kyle Prudhomme/Rivier Athletics)

RIV WOMEN

The Raiders were picked sixth in the annual preseason poll but they’ve started the season winning two of their first three and senior attacker Sarah Lachance made history by becoming the program’s all time point leader (252 in 46 games). Their two wins, going into this weekend’s scheduled game at Emmanuel, they’ve outscored the opposition 30-15.

Last year the Raiders finished 8-7, their best season since 2013-14. With Lachance, senior All American defender Cassie Hemmerdinger – the program’s first ever All-American – and sophomore attacker Sofia Cebrero (GNAC All-Rookie team last year) back, the nucleus for an even better season is there.

There are nine newcomers: Brooke Carter, Jazmin Ortiz, Ashlynn ledoux, Keegan Cgaheran, Shaelyn Burke, Hana Raab, Hannah Larson and Kyle Coupal, a mix of freshmen and upperclassmen.

Cebrero had five goals in last weekend’s 16-6 win over Anna Maria, and Lachance had five assists. Ledoux – this past week’s GNAC Rookie of the Week – and Lachance had hat tricks. Oh, and Lachance also is the Raider career leader in draw controls. This team has firepower.