The first order of business for new UMBC men's lacrosse head coach Ryan Moran was making sure his players thrived in the classroom.
That type of focus goes hand-in-hand with excelling as an athlete. From there, he got down to the challenge of building a complete lacrosse team.
The Retrievers are coming off a 4-10 season, going 1-5 in the America East Conference, which features some of the most high-powered attacks in the country. To get ready for league play, Moran put together a tough nonconference schedule with games against NCAA national champion North Carolina Feb. 4 and crosstown rival Johns Hopkins Feb. 11.
"In our conference, you have the likes of Albany, Stony Brook and Vermont -- those are three top-10 scoring offenses in the country last year," said Moran, who took over for Don Zimmerman after spending 23 years at the helm. "We're going to have to be a team that gets stops. Hopefully, if we're smart enough, we'll turn those stops into some early offense."
