(Photo Courtesy of Delaware Athletics)

The 2023 college lacrosse season has come to an end and thus it is time to take a look back at the season that was. Over the next few weeks, Lacrosse Bucket will be taking a look back at the season had in each of the 10 conferences.

Each of theses conference reviews will name a team that shined, a team that surprised or took a step forward, and a team that didn’t meet expectations. Each review will also name a player of the year, freshman of the year, a player that broke out the most, and a game of the year.

This conference review series continues with a look at the CAA.

Shining Star: Delaware Blue Hens

The Blue Hens are the class of the CAA at the moment. After being the regular season champs in 2021, Delaware got it done in the postseason as well in 2022 and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals. The Blue Hens’ dominance continued this past spring as they won the CAA for a second consecutive season. It marked the second time in history that the Blue Hens made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

Delaware had a defense that allowed 9.44 goals per game (4th in DI) and was led by a pair of veterans in defenseman Owen Grant, who was named CAA Defensive Player of The Year, and goalie Matt Kilkeary. However, it’s offense was just as scary with CAA Offensive Player of The Year Tye Kurtz leading the way for an offense that ranked eighth nationally as it averaged 14.72 goals per game.

Breakout Team: Stony Brook Seawolves

With some holes to fill, it was fair to question exactly how good Stony Brook would fare in its first year in the CAA. Well, the Seawolves ended up doing pretty well as they earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament and beating No. 2 Drexel to advance to the title game where they fell 13-10 in a battle versus Delaware.

Dylan Pallonetti once again led the Stony Brook offense and did so with a career-best, 70-point (51G/19A) season. Sophomore Jamison MacLachlan anchored a a top-30 scoring defense as a full-time starter following a strong ending to 2022.

Underachiever: Fairfield Stags

In a league where there is often so much parity it is hard to pick a true underachiever. Plus, the margins were very thin in the middle of the league. However, I’m going with Fairfield on this one. After a 7-7 record in 2022 and with some serious talent having returned on each end, the Stags went just 5-9 overall and 3-4 in league play in 2023. They missed the postseason tournament. Two of their league wins came over newcomers Monmouth and Hampton while the other came versus Hofstra, who could’ve also easily have been placed in this spot. Statistically speaking, the Stags weren’t terrible but that didn’t carry over into wins.

Player of The Year: Owen Grant, D, Delaware

The CAA Defensive Player of The Year each of the past three seasons, Grant continued to prove himself as one of the best defensemen in college lacrosse during his final season in Newark. Helping lead Delaware to another league title he collected 57 ground balls, caused 38 turnovers, and

Freshman of The Year: Will Consoli, M, Fairfield

Consoli was an instant impact player for the Stags this past spring. He put up 31 points off 24 goals and seven assists during his stellar freshman campaign. He was the top freshman goal-scorer at the midfield.

Breakout Player of The Year:  Jamison MacLachlan, G, Stony Brook

MacLachlan ended 2022 as the starter in the Seawolves’ final three games. In 2023, he assumed the role of full-time starter and made 195 saves with a 52% save percentage to anchor the Stony Brook defense.

Game of The Year: Drexel vs Stony Brook

On April 8th the Dragons hosted the Seawolves in arguably the best game of the season across the CAA. Drexel topped Stony Brook 15-14 in overtime in a contest that saw 11 ties. Dylan Pallonetti forced OT with 1:55 left for Stony Brook while a Max Semple score off a Jack Joyner feed won the game in the extra period for Drexel.