VILLANOVA, Pa. - With the beginning of the 2015 season just days away, Villanova head coach Mike Corrado and his Wildcats start the year against one of the top teams in the nation in No. 5 Johns Hopkins on Saturday, February 14th at Villanova Stadium. Now in his 9th season at the helm of the Wildcats, Corrado's squad was picked to finish third in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll and will once again face one of the toughest schedules in NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse.

Villanova returns 28 letterwinners and welcomes a freshman class of 10 newcomers to the 2015 squad led by team captains Remington Pope, Christian Bennardo, Jack Curran and John Kluh. Additionally, Curran was named to the 2015 All-BIG EAST Preseason team and is the top returning scorer for the Wildcats after notching 33 points during his sophomore season.

Corrado sat down prior to Saturday's game to give villanova.com his thoughts on preseason, his new team and a glimpse into Saturday's matchup against the Blue Jays.

Villanova.com: You started practice for the spring season almost a month ago. Can you talk about how preseason training went?

Head Coach Mike Corrado: I think that we've, for the most part, progressed at a good, steady rate. We had a couple of weeks before our first scrimmage and then had our first scrimmage which was an opportunity to evaluate our guys in a competitive environment. I thought we played pretty well against Stony Brook, then we had a week in between and we took another step and played even better against Yale. I think we're in a good place right now for being the beginning of February. We don't get much of a break though with Hopkins so we'll find out quickly where we're at on Saturday.

VC: Can you talk about the schedule?

MC: On paper it looks like a really challenging schedule but you never know how it goes year to year with teams and how they end up being. Teams that look great on paper by the time we get to them may not be having the season they thought they would.

On paper there are no gimmies on that schedule. You have the first two games as Hopkins and Penn State, then you get into the Drexel-Penn part of our schedule which are two NCAA Tournament teams from last year. Then we have Maryland, which was a final four team. Fairfield was right in there for the ECAC Championship last year too. Then we jump into our league schedule where we have the preseason No. 1 ranked team in the country, Denver, right in our conference.

I think it's a challenging schedule and one we want to play every year. The goal is to have us prepared for when we do get to the conference part of our schedule we've challenged ourselves to the best we can to prepare ourselves for that part of our season.

VC: You have a new addition to the coaching staff this year in Assistant Coach Brian Samson. How has that changed the dynamic of the staff and how has it translated on the field?

MC: A couple of things. One, he brings a wealth of experience. He was a head coach for 14 years at the high school level. He played at Georgetown and his background is a breath of fresh air having a non-Villanova guy... just different ideas. I think he's mature and he's a really fundamental-driven guy. We're going to play a little bit different style defense with him as a coach and I'm looking forward to working with him.

VC: What do you see as the biggest strength for your team this year?

MC: I really think we're going to be able to score goals. We've got some experienced guys in Johnny Gallaway, Devin McNamara, Eric Gartner, Jack Curran, those guys. Harry DellaFera has some experience and then sprinkle in three or four really good, young kids. We're going to be able to score.

Defensively, at the short stick defensive midfield spot with Remington Pope, who I think is really one of the top guys in the country at that position, and Christian Bennardo, who moved from attack to defensive midfield, has done a great job. Nick Tortoriello has been really good. We also have J.P. Campbell and Michael Duffy. We have five kids there that all can play and that's good on the defensive end.

We're going to start three totally new guys down low in John Moderski, who was really John LoCascio's backup the last two years at pole, Danny Sweeney, who has a couple of games under his belt as a freshman but is relatively inexperienced and Nate Gorman, a sophomore. I think they're all good players but they just don't have a lot of game experience. One of the biggest surprises has been Jordan Cunningham , the transfer from Denver who had to sit out last year. He's really taken another step up and has played really well this preseason and maybe is our best defensive player in the two scrimmages. Owen Hughes, who's a sophomore as well, will be bumping up between pole and close defense. Those are the guys you're going to see in the rotation and I think they're talented but they don't have a lot of experience - they're going to learn on the fly. In the first two scrimmages we've seen enough things to be optimistic.

VC: How do you feel about the goalies? All three (Dan Willis, Reed Carlson and Greg Stamatov) have game experience.

MC: All three have played really well in preseason. Dan Willis is our returning starter and played the majority of our games last year. Greg Stamatov and Reed Carlson have played really, really well this fall and played a lot in the scrimmages. Greg Stamatov has five or six starts under his belt, Reed Carlson has a whole bunch of starts and helped us beat Syracuse when he was a sophomore, and then Dan Willis as a starter for 13 or 14 games last season. I think it's a position of strength for us as well.

VC: The NCAA approved changes on the faceoff this year. How are the FOGO's adjusting and who's stepping up after the graduation of Thomas Croonquist?

MC: Luke Palmadesso is a premier-level faceoff guy coming in but he is a freshman. He's been our number one guy in the two scrimmages. I don't know exactly his percentages but he's won more than he's lost and that's what you always want (laughs). Luke, as a freshman, the talent level is there it's just getting the experience and going up against some of the top guys. There are new faceoff rules this year which I think makes Luke's game an even bigger asset for us because of the changes. He scored 60 or 70 points last year in addition to facing off at the high school level. Brent Croonquist, who has backed up his brother (Thomas Croonquist `14) the past two years has an opportunity to take the next jump and get himself in the games to be our number two guy.

We've been working on Sean Cerrone and Sean Delaney, two freshmen. Once again because of the faceoff rule changes we can put in Sean Cerrone as a top-level midfielder but he's also just a great athlete. Sean Delaney as a longstick can get in there and make a scrum for a ground ball. I think we have some good depth there as well.

VC: What are your thoughts going into the first game against Hopkins?

MC: From our standpoint we've gotten to see them play two games and how they handle different rides, different clears, their offense, their defense and facing off. I like the fact that we've gotten to see them and they haven't gotten to see us, but at the same time they do have two games under their belts and that could be an advantage. Every team is different. Them not having a chance to see us on film yet, I'm hoping, will help us out a bit.

Watching them, it's amazing to see on Saturday (against UMBC) how well they played. They shot the ball well, they moved the ball well, they cleared the ball well... they played almost a mistake-free game. Then to watch them play last night (against Towson) they got unlucky with hitting a bunch of pipes, they missed the cage a bunch of times that they didn't in the previous game, a lot more turnovers. It was interesting to watch. As a coach you know those kind of games happen. Losing on Tuesday, I'm sure they'll come ready to go on Saturday.