Despite the 2014 men’s lacrosse pre-season ranking, which sat the Catamounts at the bottom of the six-team conference, head coach Ryan Curtis said he remains optimistic.

“The team has worked hard up to this point,” Curtis said. “I have been very happy with their focus.”

The men’s lacrosse team has finished last in the standings of the America East conference the past two seasons but they are not going to throw in the towel, according to Curtis.

Entering into his eighth season as head coach, Curtis is behind the reins of a young squad.

The Catamounts have a larger first-year class this season, consisting of 10 newly recruited players.

There are also some players returning.

Sophomore goalie Justin Rosenberg will remain between the pipes after finishing third in America East in goals against with an average of 11.89.

The team is returning 54 percent of its scorers from last season.

This includes senior attackman Graham Horvath, who is coming off of a junior season, finishing with 34 points in 14 games.

Coach Curtis said a problem with previous years was that the team has not been able to finish games strong.

“Statistically, our best quarter last year was the third, our worst was the fourth. We need to fix that,” Curtis said.

Last season the Catamounts finished 4-10 overall and 1-4 in league play.

“Last year we had some curveballs thrown our way throughout the season,” Curtis said.

“I think our guys showed a lot of resilience in those situations and if we can continue to build on that this year, I think it will help us finish games stronger,” he said.

Curtis said that each year the objective is the same, “our goal is to always be competing for the America East postseason,” he said.

The Catamounts look to move toward their goal of the playoffs when they open up their season Feb. 15 at Colgate University.