INDIANAPOLIS - The North Region features some Division II’s best and one of those programs, associate member Mercyhurst, was viewed as the top team from Monday’s release of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Lacrosse Preseason Coaches Poll presented by Under Armour. 

The Lakers received five first-place votes for a total of 35 points in this year’s poll. Another associate member, an in-state rival with close proximity, Seton Hill, was polled as the preseason runner-up with a pair of first-place votes and 32 points on the ballot. 

Seven teams, with either full membership or associate membership, were ranked by the league’s head coaches going into the spring of 2022. 

Since the sport’s inception as a conference championship offering in 2017, Seton Hill and Mercyhurst have shared the spoils with a pair of conference tournament wins. 

Mercyhurst cracked the NCAA Final Four last spring by making the North Region final, the furthest advancing program in Great Midwest history in a tournament bracket format. 

Seton Hill nearly escaped the first round of the North Region as well, falling in overtime against Saint Anselm. Both programs are projected to make more noise this year with Mercyhurst ranked third and Seton Hill ranked sixth, respectively, in the USILA Coaches Poll to conclude 2021. 

Four teams will remain in contention to qualify for the conference tournament bracket from their regular season performance. Walsh and Lake Erie were also polled only three points apart from each other with the Cavaliers earning 25 and the Storm 22.

A trio of associate members from the state of West Virginia round out the preseason coaches poll this year with Davis & Elkins, Wheeling and Alderson Broaddus, looking to exceed preseason expectations based on their positioning.