The University of Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team was picked to finish fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association’s preseason coaches’ poll on Wednesday.

In 2013, the club was picked for the top spot in the same poll, but finished fourth with an overall record of 7-8.

The conference finals will be played from April 30-May 3. The two highest seeds will have home field advantage in the tournament semifinals, breaking with the old format, which saw the highest seed host the entire tournament. The title game will be played at the home of the highest remaining seed.

Penn State, this year’s No. 1 ranked team with three first-place votes, bounced UMass, 10-7, in last year’s CAA semifinals. Since then, the Minutemen lost top scorer Kyle Smith (48 points) and Will Manny (34 points) to graduation.

The upcoming season will be UMass coach Greg Cannella’s 20th at the helm of the program.

Towson, (two first place votes) and Drexel (one) are at the two and three spots respectively, while Hofstra rounds out the top five.

The Minutemen kick off their season against Army in West Point N.Y., on Feb. 9. Their first homestand is against Harvard on Feb. 22.

Peter Cappiello can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @petecapps.