As lacrosse season fast approaches in Happy Valley, Penn State’s star attackman is garnering more preseason recognition.

Graduate student attacker Mac O’Keefe was named to Inside Lacrosse’s Tewaaraton Award watch list, an award given to the best lacrosse player in the nation each year. O’Keefe joins attackers Jared Bernhardt from Maryland and Joey Epstein from Johns Hopkins as Big Ten players named to the list.

With the departure of Grant Ament, who now plays for Archers in the Premier Lacrosse League, O’Keefe is now the Nittany Lions’ main man on attack. He made the decision to return to the Nittany Lions early in the offseason, taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season.

O’Keefe has gotten a lot of hype and recognition entering the 2021 season, including preseason second-team All-American honors from Inside Lacrosse and USILA. He has 192 goals in his time at Penn State, which is the seventh most in NCAA history. His 78 goals during his junior season is a Big Ten record.

The main question for O’Keefe entering the season is how he and the Penn State offense will fare without Ament. The 2019 Penn State offense was one of the best in college lacrosse history, converting on 40.2% of its chances.

Penn State will kick off its season with a trip to Piscataway to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights this Saturday. The game will start at noon and be broadcast on BTN+.