2025 is not the year to sleep on the Virginia Military Institute Division 1 men’s lacrosse team. VMI has been on the rise for a number of years now, but it really seems like this season will be their big breakout year for a couple of reasons.
James Purpura took the helm of the Cadets back in 2021, and let’s just say he was not taking over a historic program. The VMI lacrosse program had always been pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of Division 1 lacrosse. They would squeak away with some wins but were certainly considered to be at the bottom of the barrel when it came to high-level competition. Over the past four years, Purpura has made sure that this would not be the case moving forward, and the team has steadily increased its win total every year.
One of the hardest things about being a head coach is taking over a program and trying to make it your own. As much as you want to flip the culture overnight, it takes years of dedicated effort to get your team in a spot where you can feel confident calling it yours. This comes down to recruiting, play style, and the overall development of players in your system. These increased win totals year over year have shown a sign of life for the Cadets that the program has never truly felt.
The 2024 season brought a 7-8 record, with most of their losses coming by slim margins. Their last three losses of the season came by an average of only 2.3 goals. Flash forward to 2025, and the VMI men’s lacrosse program already sits at a 3-1 record with a favorable schedule moving forward. Opening up the season with a dominant 18-7 win on the road at St. Bonaventure was certainly the morale boost any team would want to start the year. After a week of rest, they faced High Point at home and sadly suffered a loss in overtime. This loss certainly isn’t program-defining, but it showcases how much closer the team is to securing big wins against historically successful programs.
Their next two games featured a road affair at Mercer and a home game against Hampton, in which the Cadets walked away victorious in both. With 10 regular-season games remaining, even if the Cadets broke even at .500, they would finish the regular season with an 8-6 record. However, I do not foresee VMI going .500, as I would favor them in almost all of their games moving forward.
The rest of their schedule consists of road games at Iona, Monmouth, Cleveland State, Robert Morris, and Wagner. Their home affairs have the Cadets matching up with Queens, Le Moyne, Mercyhurst, Detroit Mercy, and LIU. With the newly adjusted NEC conference, I feel confident that VMI could make a run at winning the conference, which is just a crazy statement to make considering the team’s history.
The offense appears to be clicking, as they have shown they can put up points on just about anyone, which is super important. The main question is how much the defense can develop as the season progresses. In recent years, the team has had great riding and clearing numbers, so that should not be a problem for the Cadets moving forward. With a favorable schedule, a talented roster, and a finely tuned culture, who is to say that the VMI men’s lacrosse program cannot win the NEC conference this year?
