The Stockton University men’s lacrosse team has been battle-tested this season.

The Ospreys competed in the Coastal Lacrosse Conference, a challenge for Stockton that added quality nonconference opponents.

“It’s definitely been an up-and-down type season, which is not necessarily unexpected based on the strength of our schedule,” coach Kevin Zulauf said Friday. “That’s exactly what we wanted. We want to build as tough of a schedule as possible.”

The Ospreys’ first four games were against DeSales University, University of Scranton, Maritime College, and Elizabethtown College. All four have competed in the NCAA Tournament in recent seasons.

Other quality nonconference opponents the Ospreys faced include Marymount University, Wesleyan University, Eastern University, and Swarthmore College.

In the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division III week 10 coaches poll, Wesleyan is ranked 10th. Swarthmore is 11th. Salisbury, the 13-time national champion, received all 18 first-place votes.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Montclair State University, Stockton sits at 9-5.  

“We’ve put ourselves in a position that we kind of expected to be in, which was playing towards the top of the conference,” Zulauf said. “If we’re able to beat Montclair tomorrow, we guarantee our lowest seed (in the CLC Tournament) would be three. If we go to Christopher Newport next week and are able to knock them off, we would be the two seed.”

“Ups and downs” seem to be the definition of Stockton’s season to this point. Along with Zulauf, seniors Brenden McSorley and Hayden Smallwood used similar phrasing when describing the team’s season.

Stockton is 2-0 in the CLC. Its only loss came against the top-ranked and perennial powerhouse Salisbury Sea Gulls.

The Ospreys are coming off a nonconference 13-12 loss against Vassar College on Wednesday. With three games remaining, two CLC games and one nonconference game, McSorley is excited about what the team can still do.

“We fought hard, and I’m real confident that we will find our way back,” McSorley said. “We’ve got two big conference games coming up. Saturday’s very big; it’s alumni weekend. We want to make all of those who are coming back to watch us real happy with a big win, and a big seeding win for ourselves.”

“What I think we’ve done a really good job of this year is every time we played a game that maybe we’re not happy with the outcome is that we’re a resilient group and we’re able to kind of pick up and learn from those mistakes,” Smallwood said.

Smallwood said the Ospreys take the difficult route after a loss: watching the film, self-reflecting, team-reflecting, and then practicing what needs to be worked on. 

“With only one loss in the conference right now to the No. 1 team in the country, I think we’re definitely positioned very well,” Zulauf said.

“Every day of practice, we have to be sharp,” Smallwood said. “We have to go in there knowing that the team we play in our next game could beat us. That keeps you sharp. Hopefully going into the tournament and continuing in our remaining in conference games we’re able to stay sharp because of that culture that we built throughout the season.”

This story was originally obtained, written and published by Vincent Rapallo for The Press of Atlantic City.