Lyndonville, VT - The Vermont State University Lyndon Men's Basketball team opens their season with a first round match up against Colby-Sawyer College in the 2026 Vermont State Tip-Off Classic. The Hornets are the host this year with the opening game at 5:30 PM on November 6th, followed by a match up between Vermont State University Randolph and Vermont State University Johnson at 7:30 PM. The winners will face off at 3:00 PM the following day with the consolation being played at 1:00 PM directly beforehand. The winner of the 3:00 PM game will be crowned this years Tip-Off Classic champions.
Lyndon brings back 13 players from last years team, as well as a strong incoming class. Notable returners include third year guards Owen Traynor (Rutland, VT) and Christian Hathorn (Wilder, VT), third year Forwards Dylan Hosford (Richfield Springs, NY), and Max Kocha (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) and second year guard Isaiah Allison (Troy, NY). Traynor averaged 4.8 points per game on 35% 3-Point shooting and is expected to make a large leap this year. Hathorn played an important role for the Hornets playing in 17 games and making 3 starts while posting a career high 13 points against North Atlantic Conference foe Lesley University. Hosford looks to make a huge jump in his 3rd year with the program. A year ago Hosford made his Hornet debut in the 2nd semester after a return from injury that kept him sidelined up until that point. Hosford went on to play 10 games in the latter half of the year and averaged 2.7 ppg and 2.6 rebounds per game. Kocha looks to continue building on a very solid 2025-2026 campaign where he averaged 7.0 ppg and 4.6 rpg and doubled his production from his freshman campaign. Allison rounds out the notable returners for the Hornets. Allison played in just 2 contests for the Hornets before suffering a season ending injury, in those 2 contests he averaged 5.0 ppg and 4.5 rpg on a blistering 66.7% 3PT percentage.
The Hornets other 8 returners include second year guards Xavier Rainwater (Little Elm, TX), Jack Giarusso (Greenville, NY), Andrew Joncas (Danville, VT), Jacob McPhail (Brooksville, FL), and Aaric Luce (Le Roy, NY). Third year wing Brayden Pepin (Island Pond, VT), second year forward Alex Leslie (Dalton, NH), and fourth year forward Ty Bates (Hartwell, GA) who all look to increase their roles and impact in the program.
This year's incoming class featured three transfers; Tyler Bergmans (Ferrisburgh, VT), Javen Reid (Wheeling, IL) and Hayden Lutz (Bristol,VT). Bergmans last played for the Hornets in the 2024-2025 season where he averaged 12.1 ppg and 4.9 rpg and earned a NAC Rookie of the Week nod during his freshman campaign. Reid, a graduate student, joins the Hornets after time spent at Concordia University of Chicago, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Reid averaged 1.7 ppg and 0.7 rpg for Concordia. Lutz comes to Lyndon from VTSU affiliate school Vermont State University Castleton, where he played in 7 games for the Spartans.
All State Honorable Mention guard Jayden Deleon (Harpursville, NY) leads this years freshman class. Other newcomers include Daniel Forde (Apopka, FL), Henri Emenau (Nevada City, CA), Andre Ferguson (Vero Beach, FL), Ollie Kelley (North Springfield, VT), and Haden Maloney (Mansfield, OH). Deleon's All State honors come from a dominant senior season where he poured in 24.9 ppg for Harpursville and finished as the school's all time leading scorer with 1267 career points. He looks to add an offensive punch for Lyndon, while the other newcomers also look to make contributions.
Head Coach David Pasiak returns for his 9th season and highlights the potential and unity of this years team "I'm really looking forward to seeing how this team comes together as the season unfolds. We have a lot of returnees who have an opportunity to step into expanded roles and a talented group of newcomers who have the potential to make an impact both this season and over their careers. We aren't the biggest team stature-wise, but we have good depth, which we hope to use to our advantage. This is probably the most together group at this point that I have had in my time at Lyndon, and the work ethic in the pre-season has been very good. I expect us to get better every time out and be right in the thick of things when conference play begins in January."
A season ago the Hornets finished 7-18 overall and 5-13 in conference play, a mark they look to improve upon this year. They play a full non-conference slate in the first semester, starting with the previously mentioned Tip-Off Classic. After the opening tournament, the Hornets then travel to Norton, MA a week later on November 14th to take on host Wheaton College in the first round of their annual tip-off tournament. They play game two of the tournament the following day. The Hornets open conference play at Thomas College on January 9th, 2027.
