The Midwest Lacrosse Conference released its 2023 Preseason Coaches Poll on Tuesday and Lake Forest College is second in the rankings.
Voting is done by the MLC head coaches. Each coach votes for the other five schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (five points for first, four for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
With 21 points, the Foresters trailed only top-ranked University of Dubuque (25) in the poll. Dubuque received five of the six first-place votes and Lake Forest the other. Northwestern University-Saint Paul and Cornell College round out the top four with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
Lake Forest posted an overall record of 8-7 and a conference mark of 5-1 in 2022, the program's first season as a varsity sport since 1994. Defenseman Connor Murphy was a First Team All-MLC selection, attacker John Casey was named to the Second Team, and Honorable Mention accolades went to attacker Luke Bowers, shortstick Connor Tartaglione, and defenseman Henry Baizer.
Phil Dodson's second season as the Foresters' head coach will begin at home against Carroll University on Saturday, February 18. The Foresters will take on a league opponent each Saturday in April, beginning with visiting Northland College on the 1st and ending with another home game against Northwestern-Saint Paul on the 29th.
The top four teams in the league will qualify for the MLC Tournament with the semifinals on May 3 and the final on May 6.
| PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
| 1 | University of Dubuque (5) | 25 |
| 2 | Lake Forest College (1) | 21 |
| 3 | Northwestern University-Saint Paul | 16 |
| 4 | Cornell College | 14 |
| 5 | Monmouth College | 8 |
| 6 | Northland College | 6 |
