Credit:  Patrick Gordon

The Philadelphia Wings travel to the Sunshine State to open the 2010 campaign against the Orlando Titans on Friday, when the two clubs meet in the National Lacrosse League’s season opener at Amway Arena at 7:35PM ET.

After reaching the postseason in 2008, the Wings stumbled and fell short of the playoffs last season, finishing 7-9. This season the team returns 14 players, including former all-stars Geoff Snider, Kyle Sweeney, Taylor Wray and Drew Westervelt.  The team also signed veteran free agent Josh Sims and acquired Dan Teat from a trade with Edmonton in the offseason.

The Wings open the season missing two of their top scoring threats in Merrick Thomson and Athan Iannucci. Thomson, who finished fifth last season in the NLL in goals scored with 39, is on the physically unable to perform list and Iannucci, the2008 league MVP, is expected to miss the entire season after undergoing knee surgery in November.

“When you have a player of Athan’s caliber you just don’t find another player to replace that, but I think with the combination of players we have on offense we can be better on the offensive end than we were last season,” said Wings General Manager/Head Coach David Huntley.

The Wings lost two of the three meetings last season against the Titans.

The Titans finished 10-6 last season and won the Eastern Conference before falling to Calgary in the Champion’s Cup Final. Team captain Casey Powell, entering his eighth season, led the team in scoring with 45 goals and 85 points.

Though this will be the first game in Orlando Titans history, the team did play a regular season game in Sunrise, Florida this past January in a game tagged the ‘Florida Lacrosse Cup.’ This season will mark the first time a professional lacrosse team has called the state of Florida home. The team relocated to Orlando from New York in the offseason.

“We certainly are excited about our new home, and we are hoping for a real good opening night along with a big crowd,” said Titans general Manager/Head Coach Ed Comeau. “Now there seems to be a lot of excitement about lacrosse in the state of Florida.”