Spring sports are underway at Mercyhurst University, and coaches around the nation have completed their polling on where they think every team is going to rank this season.

Student-athletes from a great variety of sports have been waiting all year for this moment. Teams have been preparing for months to make sure they take on this 2020 season in the best shape possible.

After obtaining its second consecutive Atlantic Region championship, Mercyhurst baseball has gained the attention not just of the PSAC West, but also the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Atlantic Region Championship. Coaches expect the Lakers to be able to revalidate their title for the third time in a row. The NCBWA poll also positioned the team as sixth in the nation for Division II.

Men’s lacrosse was ranked first in the Great Midwest Atlan tic Conference, as well as placing fourth in the poll run by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. The Lakers were positioned in fourth place for Division II nationwide by the U.S. Lacrosse Magazine and fifth by the ESPN affiliate media entity “Inside Lacrosse.”

The Mercyhurst women’s lacrosse team was ranked No. 19 by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association as well.

Mercyhurst softball will look to better its results from last year after being ranked sixth in the PSAC West preseason poll.

After going undefeated and winning the PSAC Championship and earning the NCAA Tournament Atlantic Regionals title last year, men’s tennis was ranked highly on the Oracle/ ITA rankings, ranking as high as second.

Junior Unai Amilleta Gonza lez believes that the main goal for the team this year is to win a match in the national tournament. “In the last two years, we have won both PSAC and Regionals, but we didn’t win any rounds in nationals,” Amilleta said.

Amilleta believes that the new additions to the team will help them reach that objective, but to do so the team needs to improve on their conditioning and fitness levels. Amilleta said, “There is one point during the season that we will be exhausted and sore due to all the matches we will be playing. Being in better shape will always help us not to be tired when we have different matches in a row.”

On the other hand, the women’s tennis team will fight its way up to the top after being tabbed fourth in the Oracle/ITA Division II rankings.

Lastly, women’s water polo will welcome the new season after placing seventh in the Western Water Polo Association preseason poll. Sophomore Sara Marin said she is a firm believer that those rankings were done after looking at the standings from a year ago, but this year’s team is ready to surprise everyone.

“If they would see us play right now, they would have definitely ranked us higher, I don’t think the teams know what is coming. We have a very united and focused team and a completely different dynamic,” Marin said.

Marin said she is excited to bring this team energy to the pool and see the results of the Lakers’ hard work. “The chemistry and fluidity we have when playing is amazing, we accomplished something we had been working on for ages last season in only a couple of weeks,” Marin said.

A composite calendar with all of the upcoming spring sporting events can be found on hurstathletics.com.