FSC Men’s Lacrosse Tabs Five Captains for 2023
LAKELAND, Fla. – Head coach Marty Ward of the 11th-ranked Florida Southern men’s lacrosse team announced the appointment of five captains for the 2023 season. The five captains, graduate student Craig Connor, junior Jack Frazee, graduate student Maxwell Freestone, senior Sean Nolan, and senior Nick Shannon, were selected by their peers to lead the program this season.
“One of the principles of our program is to develop future leaders,” mention Coach Ward. “These men all exemplify tremendous characteristics of becoming elite leaders after their time at Southern. We are very excited with the consistency and accountability they have shown so far this year, we look forward to helping them lead our 2023 team this spring.”
Connor, a native of East Moriches, N.Y., returns for his final season at Florida Southern after being named Second Team All-Sunshine State Conference a season ago while also picking up USILA All-South Region Honorable Mention honors. The short-stick defensive midfielder appeared in all 18 games for the Mocs in 2022 while scoring three goals and scooping up 36 ground balls.
Frazee is entering his third season with the Moccasins out off Winter Park, Fla. He also appeared in all 18 games for the Mocs last season at the short-stick defensive midfielder position. He tallied one goal which came versus Lynn. He also dished out three assists and picked up 20 ground balls.
Freestone served as the starting goalkeeper for the Mocs in 2022 while appearing in 16 of the 18 contests. Coming all the way from Scottsdale, Ariz., Freestone has seen action in net all four years he has been with the program. He was named Second Team All-SSC as well as USILA All-South Region Honorable Mention. He was named to the SSC All-Tournament Team after helping lead the Mocs to the SSC Tournament Championship game. He went 10-5 in the cage in 2022 with an 11.91 goals against average. He now has 23 victories while playing in goal for the Mocs over his four-year career and has faced over 1700 shots.
Nolan, a native of Cross River, N.Y., has spent his career rewriting the FSC Record Book. Last season, he scored the third most goals in a game for the Mocs in program history with eight on the road at Saint Leo. During his freshman campaign in 2019, he dished out the second-most assists in a single game in FSC history with seven versus Emmanuel. Nolan also tallied the second-most points in a single game versus Emmanuel with 12 in 2019. His 57 goals in 2022 rank as the second-most in a single season at FSC while his 26 assists rank as the fourth-most in a single season at FSC. The goals and assists combined for 83 points on the year which rank as the second-most points in a single season behind his teammate Jeff Atlas who had 93 points in 2022. He scored a total of 10 hat tricks in both 2022 and 2019 to hold the top spot in that category at FSC in single season rankings. He also tallied the most shots (187) and most shots on goal (106) in a single season at FSC in 2022. Nolan is within striking distance for the career goals scored record currently held by Dane Sorensen (2012-15) who had 175 goals during his career. Nolan sits just 35 tallies behind Sorensen for the record. Nolan needs just 28 points to tie for the career record in points which is held by Atlas (2019-22) who had 230 points throughout his career. Nolan also needs just one more hat trick to tie the career record for hat tricks with 27 which is held by Sorensen. He will also most likely break the career records for shots and shots on goal which are both held by Sorensen.
Nolan was a 2022 All-SSC Second Team selection while also earning USILA All-South Region Honorable Mention. He was selected to the 2022 SSC All-Tournament Team and was named SSC Offensive Player of the Week once.
Shannon was a standout on defense for the Mocs last season. The Boyton Beach, Fla. native was named Second Team All-SSC as well as USILA All-South Region Honorable Mention. He caused a team-best and FSC single season record 38 turnovers while scooping up 58 ground balls. He had a season-best six ground balls in the Mocs upset of then-No. 1 Le Moyne at home. He also had six ground balls in two other games for the Mocs including versus Rollins and Palm Beach Atlantic. He finished the 2022 season ranked eighth in the NCAA in caused turnovers per game.
Connor, Frazee, Freestone, Nolan, Shannon and the rest of the 2023 Mocs will open up the regular season Friday, Feb. 3 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
