Last season, the Penn State men's lacrosse team was forced to use a lot of inexperienced defensive players, and had to agonize every game hoping to not lose anyone from an already thin line.

This year, the experience those players got on the line last season is expected to pay off, as the Nittany Lions return all three starting defensemen, and lost no one to graduation over the offseason.

"It's really good to get everyone back after we were as thin as can be last season," coach Glenn Thiel said.

"But this year we have some very talented upperclassmen, and we've also got some real nice freshmen coming in. We have a much deeper team, and that allows us to do a lot more on defense."

The person in charge of getting the Lions to do more will be newly hired assistant coach Lars Tiffany, replacing former coach Rick Young.

"I've been trying to make the defense much more complex," Tiffany said. "We've added several slide packages, and we're working on a lot of different schemes."

Tiffany joined the team in mid-September, so he has been able to gradually incorporate his new system.

"Coach Tiffany did a really good job of breaking us in gradually," sophomore Matt Zappia said. "Now we can really work on those a lot harder. The new schemes have made playing a lot more exciting."

Tiffany and Thiel plan on working with the gifts they have on this defense and expect to have seven players working into the three defensive starting spots.

"We're going to use our depth to our advantage," Tiffany said. "We're trying to use all of our guys, get a lot of different people in there and keep everybody fresh."

Leading the group is senior captain Jan Northrop, the squad's unquestioned leader.

"Jan's the leader," Thiel said. "He's the talker, he's a real emotional guy. He's extremely physical, he's not super quick, but he does the job with his physicality."

Also returning is senior Mike Herscha, a second team ECAC all-star last season. Herscha will get time on close defense and at long stick midfielder. The coaching staff lists Herscha's speed and footwork as his greatest assets.

"Mike has very good takeaway ability," Tiffany said. "Sometimes he goes for takeaways a little bit too much and gets himself out of position, but a lot of times he succeeds."

Sophomore Matt Zappia also got a lot of playing time last season, and is expected to be one of the squad's leaders.

"Zappia's a very consistent player," Thiel said. "He's not as fast as, or as physical as the other guys, but he doesn't make a lot of mistakes, and he's a great stick handler."

Senior Carson Yoder, also a returning starter, is also renowned for his consistent, smart play. Sophomore R. J. Charles and freshmen Rob Bateman and Matt O'Malley will round out the squad Thiel hopes to rotate on the field.

Bateman is probably the most promising of the bunch. At 6'4", 210 pounds, he is definitely not lacking in size, and he has the speed to go with it. He has also learned Tiffany's schemes surprisingly well.

"He has a very good understanding of this game defensively and offensively," Tiffany said. "He has a much better understanding of this game than you would expect a freshman to have."

Tiffany expects to use all seven of those players in every game, but the lineup will change depending on the opponent. Thiel believes this may be one of the best defenses he's been able to put on the field.

"This is probably the best stick handling defense I've ever had," he said. "Overall there as good as any group I've had."