Lucca, Roman and Peri DiBartolomeo have spent so much of their lives on the same field that Penn State’s defense now looks built around the family bond. The three brothers, all defenders for Penn State men’s lacrosse, are part of the No. 8 seed’s run into the NCAA Tournament, where the Nittany Lions open against visiting Army at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Penn State enters the tournament with a 9-5 record after winning its first Big Ten men’s lacrosse championship since 2019 last weekend at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium. The championship and a 2025 trip to the NCAA Final Four, the third time in program history, have given the Nittany Lions a clear line into the bracket, and the DiBartolomeos are at the center of that path.
The brothers grew up together in Lower Merion and played on the same teams as kids. Lucca is the oldest, while Roman and Peri are twins. That closeness was tested early. During Lucca’s freshman year at Malvern Prep, doctors diagnosed him with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after an MRI showed a large mass between his lungs and his left shoulder, slightly larger than a golf ball.
Peri said he was young when the family first heard the diagnosis, but he still remembers his father telling them in the living room and crying for the first time. He said the experience felt unreal and was difficult to live through, but that it helped shape the person he became by standing with Lucca and the rest of the family.
Lucca missed so much school for chemotherapy that he reclassified and later joined Roman and Peri at Penn State. He said the ordeal brought the brothers closer together. Roman and Lucca both said they had always wanted to stay together when they moved on to college, but some schools were not willing to keep the trio intact. Penn State’s connection with Malvern Prep and its ties to coach Jeff Tambroni helped make the decision.
Lucca, who is 21, said the family had played together on the same teams growing up and that the reclassification eventually put the brothers back on the same path. Roman redshirted his freshman season last year while Lucca and Peri suited up, then said that watching and learning the college game gave him a better base for this season. He added that having his brothers beside him on the field has helped a great deal.
The timing matters for Penn State because the defense has been one of the team’s strengths all season. The Nittany Lions gave up an average of 9.05 goals per game, third-lowest in the Big Ten, and now they carry that edge into a matchup that begins another postseason test with Army coming to Happy Valley.
For Penn State, the tournament is about more than a seed line or a championship banner. The brothers’ story runs through the program’s current success, and Saturday’s opening game will show whether that bond can keep driving a team that has already reached the Final Four and now wants more.
