When star junior attackman Grant Ament went down with a foot injury just before the season started for the men’s lacrosse team, a cloud of uncertainty began to form regarding the team’s season outlook. Well, through 12 games, it seems as if Penn State has found its sweet spot after a big win on Saturday. A large part of the team’s improvement this season has been the growth of junior Nick Spillane.

The midfielder-turned-attackman has been the do-it-all guy for the Nittany Lions this season. His 45 points lead the team. Sophomore Mac O’Keefe has added 42 points for the Nittany Lions as well.

Although Spillane hasn’t played attackman since high school, this year he needed to move back into that role because of the foot injury that has forced Ament out of the entire regular season thus far. Taking the place of Ament was no easy task, but Spillane has made the best of it.

The junior not only finds the back of the net regularly, but also gets his teammates involved as well. His 18 goals and 27 assists have allowed the Nittany Lions to get back into contention for a spot in the NCAA tournament, despite a rough start to the season. To put Spillane’s numbers in perspective, Ament, who was named to the Tewaaraton Award watch list to begin the season, had 30 goals and 30 assists last year. So Spillane has done his part to keep the Nittany Lions afloat.

Coach Jeff Tambroni stressed how important Spillane’s growth this season has been to the team.

“I don’t think it should be understated. He’s gone from a midfielder that would take sometimes the pole, but sometimes the second- or third-best defensive midfield, to taking the very best defenseman on everyone’s team, and having to take them on. I think each week he just seems to get a little bit better,” Tambroni said.

Spillane’s career-best seven points led Penn State to its first win against Johns Hopkins in program history on Saturday and earned him his first spot on the USILA Team of the Week. Sophomore face-off man Gerard Arceri joined him in being named the Big Ten Specialist of the Week.

Junior teammate Kevin Hill praised Spillane’s impressive performance against Hopkins.

“He’s done great,” Hill said. “He played attack in high school and he’s done things so well. He had a couple really big goals for us today and we needed that so bad, so real proud of him.”

Tambroni attributes Spillane’s stellar play as of late to his attitude during practice.

“I thought our team was okay at best in practice this week and Nicky was one of the very few, a handful of guys, that I thought just really stood out. I thought he stood out in practice. His mindset, his focus, and determination in practice was just a little bit different,” Tambroni said. “I was actually just having a conversation with Grant in the pregame, and we were just talking about our team, and we pointed out Nicky as a guy that just seemed to be locked in. And his development has been significant, but I think a lot of what happened today was because of the way he competed and played all week in practice.”

Spillane agrees that his swagger on game day derives from the effort he puts forth in practice during the week.

“I would just say I’ve gotten more comfortable and more confident back there. I played there in high school but it’s, you know, the college game is just so much faster and stuff,” Spillane said. “I played midfield my first two years. It’s different playing behind the goal but I think now I’m practicing with more confidence, which is allowing me to play on the weekends with a lot more confidence, and just make more plays.”

With Ament possibly inching closer to a return to action considering the postseason is just around the corner, it will be interesting to see how Spillane is utilized. Spillane has thrived this season in Ament’s role, and so Tambroni will have to make a tough call when the time comes. Ament’s talent is rare, but the current fluidity of the offense running through Spillane cannot be ignored.