(photo from the JU Lax web site)   The Jacksonville Dolphins are looking to turn their fortunes around following last season’s 4-9 record that included 3 one goal losses and a first round defeat to High Point in the Atlantic Sun conference playoffs (the league is now known as the Southern Conference).  The Dolphins went 3-2 in conference in the regular season but struggled with the out of conference schedule that included both NCAA finalists in Duke and Notre Dame. Coach Guy Van Arsdale (another of my Florida Hobart mafia!) is looking towards climbing back over .500 by emphasizing consistency and competitiveness.  The goal for the team is to win the conference and make the NCAA tournament.  Duke and ND have been replaced with Army and St. John’s while Michigan replaces Ohio State.  There are only four games away from the recently re-built D.B Milne Field, a venue well-suited for the future of the program.  The opening game against Army, as part of the fifth annual Moe’s Southwest Classic, will take place on Sunday, the 15^th and will be carried on ESPN3, a first for the program. http://www.judolphins.com/sports/mlax/2014-15/releases/201502096enreu An analysis of last year’s statistics shows both strengths and things to work on, as you would expect.  High up on the list are the defensive stats, as JU finished 57^th in the nation in goals against with 11.77 per game.  That started with the faceoff issue, where the Dolphins only won 37.4% of their faceoffs (note: all these stats I quote are from the NCAA’s web site) and also struggled on man down defense, finishing 60^th there. There were some good things to build on as the offense managed to finish 38^th in the nation, putting up 9.54 goals per game, which is encouraging when you consider the other statistics.  So the potential for a quick turnaround in the overall record is certainly in place if the defense and faceoff situation improves. The team is pretty young this season as only 18 of the 42 roster players are upperclassmen, with only 8 of those seniors, so there is definitely a transition going on.  The only top scorer not coming back is Duncan Clancy, a late pick of the Florida Launch in the 2014 draft, who has graduated.  There will be ‘Moore’ of the same as Tom and Rob Moore return to look to top their combined 66 points last season and they will be joined by Dakota Rohlin and Quint Miller as other players who reached double digits last season.  The defense lost Jupiter graduate Tyler Black at the LSM position to graduation.   There are a number of sophomores looking to compete for the open positions and they include St. Thomas Aquinas graduate Fernando Milanes at midfield.  Other sophomores to watch are Brady Charles, E.J. Thurmond, Josh Kuehn and Chase McIntyre.     The freshman class includes Ponte Vedra standout R.J. Garcia, a high scoring middie.  JU recruits nationally like everyone else but they’ve already received coomitments for next year from Eric Applegate of Ponte Vedra and Hayden LaVangie of Fleming Island for the 2015-16 season so the Florida pipeline is starting to fill up.  As the program goes forward the next step for the Dolphins, now that the facility is in place, is to work on building up the funding.  The school does not yet have a lineage of graduated players that most other schools can call on so that remains a work in progress.     Good luck to Coach Van Arsdale and the team as they go forward with the season!