The University of Utah men’s lacrosse season has begun as the Utes lost a close game against No. 5 Denver on Saturday. The team battled Denver to the wire but ended up losing 9-8 as time expired. Tyler Bradbury led the team with three goals and added two assists for a total of five points.

The last time a Utah player scored a hat trick was Colin Burke in March of 2020. Burke has since gone on to become the first Utah lacrosse player to be drafted into the Major League Lacrosse. Burke was drafted third overall by the New York Lizards after ranking within the nation’s top-20 players during the shortened season due to COVID-19. He finished the season with 31 points and 16 assists.

This year’s team is relatively young — sporting 25 freshman and 17 sophomores. A huge part of this team’s composition is due to spring sports getting eligibility back from the 2020 season due to COVID-19. Utah only has two upperclassmen this year, fifth-year senior Dan Tracy and graduate transfer Harrison Nye.

The season captains for 2021 are Samuel Cambere, Rylan Lemons and Jonathan Rose. Cambere is from Flower Mound, Texas and he has started in 15 of his 21 games played. Cambere has recorded 80 groundballs, 30 caused turnovers and five faceoff victories. He was a College Crosse All-Freshman Second-Team honoree after his first season with Utah.

Lemons is a defensive player from Windsor, Colorado and he has played in 14 games as a Ute. He has recorded 11 groundballs and one caused turnover. Jonathan Rose is the eldest of the two Rose brothers on the team from Atlanta, Georgia, and he has played in 19 career games. Rose plays as a midfielder and has recorded 11 groundballs, three caused turnovers and one goal.

As for academics, Utah has once again put the “student” in student-athlete as the team finished the Fall 2020 semester with a team GPA of 3.34. Five players on the team earned a perfect 4.0 and 20 made the Dean’s List with a GPA of 3.5 or above.

Looking at the rest of the season, the team will be traveling over 30,000 miles this year — which means they will be one of the most traveled teams in college lacrosse. The closest away game for the team was the season-opener at Denver, and eight of the team’s nine away games are located on the east coast.

For their next game, the team will be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky to battle Bellarmine. The teams have faced off twice before, and Utah has won both games. Faceoff is set for Feb. 6 at 10 a.m. MST as Utah looks to keep a perfect record against Bellarmine.

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