Clay County Times

The 2022 ASUN Men's Lacrosse preseason awards were announced on Wednesday and a trio of Dolphins headline the All-Conference team, with graduate student Max Waldbaum headlining as the Preseason Player of the Year. Teammates Luke Millican and Troy Hettinger were also named as members of the Preseason All-Conference Team

Jacksonville University men's lacrosse was selected to finish second in the league in the coaches poll, having received the most first place votes with four, but second most points overall with 90.

Max Waldbaum is coming off one of the best seasons in Jacksonville men's lacrosse history after he totaled 48 goals, 24 assists for 72 total points. The triad of stats was good for the second, third and first most, respectively, in program history at Jacksonville. The Denver, Colorado native had nine showings with at least five points and seven games where he scored four or games. The filled stat sheet and impeccable resume led Waldbaum to being selected as an All-American by USILA, USA Lacrosse Magazine and Inside Lacrosse. Waldbaum was also a member of the SoCon All-Conference First Team and made appearances in the Inside Lacrosse and USILA Player of the Week.

Graduate student Luke Millican was named as the goalkeeper on the Preseason All-Conference team after a stellar 2022 campaign. Millican had the best goals-against average in the country last spring at 8.27 goals per game. He also had the fifth best save percentage in the nation at .582 The Southlake, Texas native was between the pipes for 14 wins last season, which is a program best, and added nine, 10 save performances. Millican garnished All-American recognition from Inside Lacrosse, USILA and USA Lacrosse Magazine for his incredible campaign and was also a First-Team All-SoCon member for his performances last spring.

Troy Hettinger rounded out the threesome of JU players to be named to the Preseason All-Conference team. The graduate Student was named an All-American from USA Lacrosse magazine after a campaign that saw him net six goals and four assists to go along with 22 ground balls and eight caused turnovers. Hettinger also was named an Inside Lacrosse midseason All-American and was named First-Team All-SoCon. The Ellicott City, Maryland native played in all 17 games last season and had five multi ground ball games, with a season best five coming February 5th against Johns Hopkins.

JU was picked to finish behind only Utah in the preseason poll after a 2022 season that saw them post a 14-3 record and post monumental wins over 2nd ranked Duke and 14th ranked Denver, both on the road. The Dolphins made it to the SoCon Championship last season after a perfect 5-0 conference record in the regular season. Returners Zack Deaken and reigning SoCon Freshman of the Year Jackson Intrieri were named to the SoCon All-Tournament team last season. Head Coach John Galloway was the SoCon Coach of the Year last season while Jordan Young, Jacob Greiner and Ethan LaMond all return for the Green and White following All-Conference recognition in the SoCon's last season of sponsoring Men's Lacrosse.

The ASUN Conference features 10 teams in Men's Lacrosse this season with JU, Lindenwood (Mo.), Mercer and Queens (N.C) all joining the conference in what is the second year of sponsorship by the ASUN. The Dolphins look for their first ASUN Championship in men's lacrosse in head coach John Galloway's seventh season as the leader of the program. The season starts on February 4th as Johns Hopkins travels to Rock Stadium to take on the nationally ranked Dolphins. Conference play begins March 18th when the team travels to Moon Township, Pennsylvania for a tilt with Robert Morris. 

Original source can be found here.