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Opening day of the 2026 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse season is Jan. 31.
Throughout the month of January, we'll pose three burning questions for each team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Preseason Top 20, presented by CWENCH Hydration, starting with No. 20 Michigan and finishing with No. 1 Maryland.
Join the conversation on social media @USALMag (IG/X/FB). Wrong answers only.
Richmond spent the last handful of years as the best program in Division I men’s lacrosse without an NCAA tournament victory, an achievement that was always floating somewhere in the future.
Then the Spiders handled North Carolina 13-10 in the first round last May and gave eventual national champion Cornell a scare in the quarterfinals. Suddenly, a program goal was in the past.
It led to what coach Dan Chemotti described as a “harsh but friendly reminder” during the fall. As invigorating as last spring was for Richmond, it won’t win the Spiders any games in 2026. And Chemotti acknowledged even he probably tried to get his team back to the level it was at in May too quickly.
“College athletics doesn’t work like that,” Chemotti said. “You don’t pick up where you left off. You get a brand-new team, and you have to sort through, ‘What’s the personality of this team? What are they going to make of their identity?’ because it’s different. It’s going to be different than last year’s team.”
Different internally, certainly, with departures scattered throughout the roster. (Max Merklinger and Lukas Olsson among the notable graduates on offense, along with defenseman Mitchell Dunham, long pole Tommy Stull, goalie Zach Vigue and faceoff man Jared Chenoy.)
Yet there’s enough consistency and continuity that it’s realistic to anticipate Richmond will field a balanced offense and an exceptionally cohesive defense. It’s what the Spiders have usually done over their first 12 seasons under Chemotti.
Not that he wants to dwell on it right now.
“Last year was noteworthy enough to talk about,” Chemotti said. “I’m desperately trying to turn the page and just get people to stop talking about it because I know if they’re talking to me about it, they’re talking to our guys about it. And we need to turn the page.”
As well as things turned out last year, with Richmond running two effective midfield lines in May, it’s easy to forget how long it took for the Spiders to sort out their offensive puzzle.
That didn’t happen until March, and there were emerging players like Daniel Picart — who scored half of his 12 goals as a freshman in the Atlantic 10 and NCAA tournaments — deep into the season. There’s a strong returning core that includes Lucas Littlejohn (40 goals, 13 assists in 2025), Aidan O’Neil (29 G, 22 A), A-10 tournament MVP Joe Sheridan (30 G, 10 A) and Gavin Creo (19 G, 8 A).
Injuries limited some of those guys in the fall, though Chemotti said he doesn’t believe there are any long-term issues with any. That created opportunities for others but also meant the process for finding answers was slowed.
“I’d be lying if I said we had that figured out,” Chemotti said. “We definitely didn’t have that figured out at this time last year. Certainly, those four guys are going to be really important parts to what we’re doing offensively.”
Last year was noteworthy enough to talk about. I’m desperately trying to turn the page and just get people to stop talking about it because I know if they’re talking to me about it, they’re talking to our guys about it. And we need to turn the page.
Dan Chemotti
Quite possibly. It doesn’t hurt to start with close defenseman Hunter Smith and short-stick defensive midfielder Jack Pilling, pivotal figures from the moment they entered the program and arguably among the top five players at their respective positions nationally.
As talented as they are, the Spiders have other tested options. Graduate student Michael Farrell was a lineup fixture much of last season. Senior Connor Kelly was a regular and got a couple starting nods.
And it’s not as if Pilling is the only capable short stick at Richmond with experience.
“Those guys played a lot for us last year, and those guys are back,” Chemotti said. “Our short-stick unit returns pretty much fully intact, and there’s some nice guys who were younger who we think are going to contribute. You lose a guy like Tommy Stull and Mitch Dunham, those guys with what they could do when the ball was on the turf was significant. I do think there are guys who are younger versions of those guys who just need an opportunity.”
Chemotti likes to describe defense as the program’s backbone. There’s no reason to think it won’t be again this spring.
Chemotti didn’t hesitate to peg redshirt junior Connor Knight as the Spiders’ No. 1 goalie. He redshirted last year behind Vigue, but he has a little starting experience (the 2024 season opener against Maryland) and impressed in the fall.
The faceoff situation has more nuance. Senior Anthony DiCenso (.429) took about a third of Richmond’s attempts at the X last spring, while junior Jackson Strickland (.360) got work in a dozen games, much of it early in the season when Chenoy missed time.
Touted newcomer Vince Gaylord has a chance to have as much impact as any freshman on the roster, though he had some lessons administered by outside competition in the fall.
“We scrimmaged [Brady] Wambach from Carolina, we scrimmaged [Zach] Hayashi from Navy, so he got baptized really quickly with, ‘Hey, this is what it looks like in Division I,’ and there’s a lot more that goes into just winning the clamp here,” Chemotti said. “We have really high hopes for him, and we think he’s going to be able to live up to his potential.”
The most striking thing about watching the Spiders in a tournament setting last season was their connectedness. The fact they had so many capable options — and no reluctance to use as many of them as possible — was a close second.
It’s not just an asset for late in the season. The Spiders face Maryland (Jan. 31), Virginia (Feb. 14) and Georgetown (March 7) at home, Cornell (Feb. 28) on the road and Notre Dame (April 4) in Chicago as part of their typically ambitious non-conference schedule.
Having several answers could help Richmond pocket a high-value victory or two before Atlantic 10 play begins, but how quickly they can emerge remains to be seen.
“We recognized that depth was a strength of ours last year,” Chemotti said. “When I talk about the identity, that was a strength. This year, do I feel like we’re as deep? Eh, I don’t think we’re as deep as we were last year, but that doesn’t mean we lack depth.”
Patrick Stevens has covered college sports for 25 years. His work also appears in The Washington Post, Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and other outlets. He's provided coverage of Division I men's lacrosse to USA Lacrosse Magazine since 2010.
