Men's lacrosse kicks off first season: lacrosse junior captain navigates winding road to season opener.

• Position: Athletics

The men's lacrosse team laid its sticks down for its first varsity face-off on Feb. 2 against the Delaware Blue Hens. The game took place at Vert Stadium in front of more than 2,000 fans. Although the Panthers were going up against a team that had been to two of the last three NCAA Tournaments, HPU came away with a respectable 12-10 loss. Redshirt-freshman Brendan Montrello scored High Point's first goal and freshman Dan Lomas scored five goals. In the second game of the season, HPU beat perennial NCAA tournament team Towson 9-7 behind four goals from Lomas. Lomas then scored six goals in HPU's 13-10 win over Michigan on March 6. HPU also faced North Carolina, Duke, Drexel and Brown, which were all nationally ranked. For more information on the team's results, check www.highpointpanthers.com/mlacrosse. After playing as an independent for the 2013 season, High Point will join the Atlantic Sun for men's lacrosse in 2014. The first-year lacrosse league will include HPU, Furman, Jacksonville, Mercer, Richmond and VMI.

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In its inaugural season, the men's lacrosse team is young. Of the 40 players on the roster, 38 are freshmen or sophomores. One of just two upperclassmen on the team is junior captain Bucky Smith--a player that Head Coach Jon Torpey calls "one of the best leaders he has ever coached."

Smith had time to hone his leadership skills with a long and winding road to High Point's first season. He spent two seasons at the Naval Academy before transferring to HPU in August 2011. Smith practiced with the Panthers that fall but hit another bump in the road in February when he tore his ACL. Exactly one year later, he was on the field for the men's lacrosse program opener against Delaware in February.

"There were a lot of things running through my head the day of the Delaware game," Smith says. "But none of them were about my knee. My sole focus was on playing hard and supporting my teammates. I have never been part of a closer team, and we fight as hard as we possibly can for each other."

When Smith decided to leave Navy, it was a very tough decision. His head coach at the academy, Richie Meade, now the head coach at Furman University, suggested he check out High Point. The rumors were flying in lacrosse circles that Coach Torpey was building something special in North...