At 13-4 overall, and tying its most successful regular season in program history set a year ago, the Penn College men’s lacrosse team finds itself in a familiar position as it heads into the United East Conference playoffs for the sixth consecutive season under coach Jordan Williams.

Playing a COVID-19 shortened schedule during their inaugural campaign in 2021, the Wildcats finished second to SUNY Morrisville. In 2022, they lost to St. Mary’s (Md.) College in the conference semifinals, and in 2023, they lost in the semifinals to SUNY Morrisville.

The last two seasons in championship matches, they lost to St. Mary’s every time, but each year strides were being made.

On March 14 of this season in a non-conference outing, Penn College turned the tables on SUNY Morrisville, winning for the first time in six meetings.

Then, 14 days later in a UE matchup against St. Mary’s, the Wildcats had their best showing in their eight meetings as they led 10-8 after three periods of play before being outscored 5-0 in the fourth quarter. The three-goal final differential was the tightest ever between the two.

While a rematch against top-seeded St. Mary’s is a possibility, St. Mary’s (3-0 UE, 10-7 overall) hosts No. 4 Cairn University (0-3, 2-8) in its semifinal, while No. 2 Penn College (2-1 UE) must first deal with No. 3 Pitt-Bradford (1-2, 11-5) in Wednesday’s 7 p.m. home semifinal, both must win for a rematch in Saturday’s title tilt.

During regular-season UE encounters, the Wildcats defeated Pitt-Bradford 21-3 in their meeting last Wednesday, and St. Mary’s downed Cairn 27-0 on Feb. 20.

“Pitt-Bradford is a tough opponent that has a lot of skill. They play hard, and they are well coached. We found success against them, but if we walk in thinking the game is over, we are going to be in a battle,” Williams said.

“The game plan and focus stay the same regardless of who we are playing — make them focus on what we do, not what they do. If we can do that, I feel confident we will earn another opportunity to play for a conference championship. If that is the case, we go in with a second chance at St. Mary’s to get some redemption, raise our program standard, and win our first conference championship,” the coach said.

In addition to the rigors of an always physical, sometimes brutal sport, this year’s squad has had to deal with off-field adversity, as well, with the loss of former teammate Sam Nice, a midfielder on the 2024 team who died earlier this month after battling brain cancer.

“Our young men and program have been thrown a lot of adversity this year with the loss of a teammate, but they keep showing up and caring for each other. It would have been easy for guys to give up on the year, but they are coming together to play in honor of Sam, whether it is practice or a game,” Williams said. “As a coach, I am extremely proud of how emotionally tough and resilient they are, and we are excited to see how we can finish this year. One of our major themes for this year has been ‘non sibi sed aliis,’ a Latin phrase meaning ‘not for oneself, but for others,’ and that is showing up daily, even when it is hard, in our program. 

“While we have lost some games, this year we are in every single game, and that is the process we constantly talk about. Each game, we are taking big strides and playing some of our best lacrosse. In a perfect world, we play our best lacrosse in the last game of the year, and we are trending in that direction. While our conference, unfortunately, lost our automatic qualifier this year to the NCAA, all of our original goals as a program are obtainable if we can continue to play our game,” Williams continued.

“Our guys have talked about not being satisfied with last season and wanting this one to raise our standard; they have done that and then some, but the work isn’t finished. We are excited to compete for each other, for Sam, and for the opportunity to go where no PCT lacrosse team has gone before.”