Led by Sam Handley, No. 10 Penn lacrosse readies for a ‘challenge’ this season

Penn’s Sam Handley was one of five college players named to the United States national team’s training roster. Although he didn’t make the final cut, the 6-foot-5 midfielder was named the Division I national preseason player of the year by USA Lacrosse Magazine.

He was also nabbed as the country’s top college midfielder and a unanimous pick as a first-team All-America.

However...

“It’s a team game,” Handley said. “If we’re not a great team, none of those accolades would have come my way.”

With weapons in all positions, like attackers Cam Rubin and Dylan Gergar and long-stick middle BJ Farrare, 10th-ranked Penn is ready to make headlines. The Quakers began their season Saturday with a 9-7 victory at No. 8 Georgetown.

A native of Portland, Ore., Handley isn’t your average midfielder because that’s not how he grew up. Penn coach Mike Murphy originally recruited Handley for his attack. He was flexed to the midfield position to even out the team’s depth charts.

“[When he got here], I don’t think he really knew how good he could be,” Murphy said. “He kept stepping up to the challenge.”

Handley’s quarterbacking abilities as a midfielder are a rare sight to see in lacrosse. Factoring in that he’s the biggest player on the roster, he’s hard to defend against.

As a hyper-regional sport, the main lacrosse hotbeds are in the northeast, especially in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. Lacrosse only started to become popular in the Pacific Northwest in the last few years and players like Handley helped put the sport on the map there.

“As a player, remembering where I come from and what I represent [keep me going],” Handley said. “There are a lot of kids on the West Coast ... if I could be an inspiration to them, that would be pretty cool, too.”

This might be his final year at Penn, but he’s still undecided about becoming a graduate transfer and playing one last season of college lacrosse. If he decides to hang up his cleats and pursue the professional game, he will have plenty of options.

Some pundits are calling Handley the top prospect for the Professional Lacrosse League’s 2023 draft. As the current draft order stands, Atlas LC is projected to nab the 6-foot-5 midfielder.

Atlas have several other players with Philly ties. Faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste — the reigning league MVP — plays for the Wings in the winter. Defenseman Tucker Durkin (Huntingdon Valley) and short-stick defensive midfielder Jake Richard (West Chester) also grew up in the area.

The Ivy League was considered the deepest lacrosse conference in the country last season, with six of its seven teams making the NCAA Tournament. Picking up where they left off, those six teams entered the season in the nation’s top 20. Though Penn was ranked fourth in the Ivy preseason poll, breaking the national rankings is a testament to how difficult the league really is.

The preseason ranking might be good luck for the Quakers as they were ranked fourth at the end of the 2022 regular season, barely squeaking into the Ivy League Tournament. They proceeded to beat the odds, win the tournament, and secure the league’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament. They ended up falling just short, losing to Rutgers in the national quarterfinals.

“Winning the national championship is certainly [one of Penn’s goals],” Murphy said. “But each day we try to stay more focused on things that will get us there and getting better.”

Unlike past years when the top seed hosted the Ivy League Tournament, the 2023 event will take place on Columbia’s campus. Columbia has a women’s lacrosse program but is the only Ivy squad with no men’s team. It is unclear why the tournament site change was made. It was possibly a nudge for Columbia to sponsor a men’s lacrosse team or to secure a neutral site for the stacked league, or varying degrees of both.