Saint Joseph's was elevated to the varsity level in 1992 after competing several years at club level. They played their first season in 1993 as an independent. The Hawks saw some early success after joining the MAAC in 1997.[3] In 2000, St. Joe's was the number one seed in the MAAC year-end tournament, where they would go on to win their first MAAC Championship, defeating Manhattan 17-7.[4]
St. Joe's competed as members of the MAAC until 2010. For the 2011-2013 seasons, the Hawks competed in the CAA. From 2014 to 2022, they competed in the NEC,[5] before their full-time conference, the Atlantic 10 added lacrosse in 2023.[2]
Taylor Wray took over as head coach in 2012 and instantly turned the program around. In his third season, St. Joe’s won 11 games and went undefeated in conference play. From 2015 to 2022, the Hawks would go to the NEC Championship Game five times.[6] St. Joe’s won the NEC in 2022, defeating Hobart 14-7.[5] This win sent the Hawks to their first NCAA Tournament, where they fell 18-16 to 4-seeded Yale.[7] The Hawks won the 2024 A10 Championship, defeating Richmond 17-13, and securing the A10's auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament.[8] After this win, the Hawks were ranked #13 going into the tournament, their highest ranking in program history. They went on to lose to #5 ranked Virginia in the opening round.[9]
Annual record
The following is a list of Saint Joseph's results by season as an NCAA Division I program:
National championPostseason invitational champion Conference regular season championConference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season championDivision regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion
†NCAA canceled 2020 collegiate activities due to the COVID-19 virus
St. Joe's has sent several players to the various professional box and field lacrosse leagues over the past three decades as a program. Since the formation of the league in 2019, St. Joe's has had three PLL draft picks.
Levi Anderson, the all-time points leader on Hawk Hill, has been the most notable professional player. Anderson was drafted by the California Redwoods in 2024, but was traded to the Maryland Whipsnakes before playing in a game.[17] Anderson finished his rookie season with 13 points in 7 games and 3 goals in the postseason, including the overtime game-winner against the Atlas in the Semifinals.[18]
Anderson was the first Hawk to play in both the PLL and the NLL. He was selected in the first round by the Saskatchewan Rush and continues to play in both leagues.[19] In 2024, the Rush made it to the NLL Finals, falling to the Buffalo Bandits 2 games to 1.[20]
↑ Toron Eccleston was drafted in 2023 after his senior season at Lenoir-Rhyne. He chose to transfer to St. Joe's and play his last year of eligibility with the Hawks.[22] After the 2024 season, the Swarm maintained its draft rights to Eccleston, and he debuted for the team on January 10th.[23]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
