Putting on their facemasks and grabbing their sticks, the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs get ready for another practice as their respective seasons inch closer to starting this spring.
Last season, in the women’s lacrosse program’s first year, the team went 5-11, including a three-game winning streak during mid-April. However, the season ended on a low note as the Cardinals lost their last four games.
Returning their top four scorers from last season, Tory Blatt, Alyssa Johnson, Rebecca Carter and Courtney Hilfinger, the offense looks to build on last year and step up their play.
Blatt, a sophomore nursing major said “I took great pride in being the leading scorer last season. … But, I’m more concerned in improving our offense and focusing on winning games than getting the most goals.”
With 16 women on the roster and the need for 12 on the field at a time, the small roster might affect play this season. However, a small roster does have its benefits, according to Johnson, a junior history major.
“The smaller roster has actually allowed for better team chemistry and easy communication in practice,” Johnson said.
“Everyone plays an important role and will be expected to contribute in games,” she said.
This season there are six new faces on the women’s roster, including five freshmen, all of whom have impressed the coaching staff as well as the returning players so far in practice.
“The new girls have been a great addition to our team,” Blatt said. “We were very fortunate to get girls that mesh well with all our personalities.”
One of the freshmen expected to make an impact is Annie Kelly, a midfield pre-nursing major from Danville, Calif.
“College lacrosse is very different from high school, it’s more challenging,” Kelly said. “But to be honest, I’ve never had more fun playing lacrosse.”
Even though it is only the program’s second season, Blatt said the team has set high goals.
“I think our overall goal is to go out and demand respect from every team and be recognized as a threat by all of our opponents,” Blatt said.
The Cardinals will play their first game of the season at Thiel College Feb. 24.
For the men’s team, the focus is making it to the NCAA tournament after achieving the program’s first winning season last spring with a record of 9-6.
The men’s lacrosse team is currently in the Independent Conference since the Ohio Athletic Conference does not yet exist in Division III lacrosse.
There are 50 teams in the Independent Conference and the top five teams make it into the NCAA tournament each year.
“13-4 would be our ultimate goal, make the tournament and send out the seniors with more games won then lost,” said junior Mikey O’Neal, team captain and health promotion and fitness major.
“We have a couple of young players fighting for playing time on the midfield, and we got a couple guys on attack coming in that are really strong players,” O’Neal said.
Sophomore sport management major Reilly Dixon said that the experience from last season along with losing very few players will aid them this spring.
“We have captains on offense so we will have leadership on both offense as well as defense this year,” Dixon said.
This season head coach Colin Hartnett has provided some words of inspiration that sophomore business major Cam Elavsky has kept in mind.
“Take every game seriously, this season is going to be very challenging, Elavsky said. “But with that, we can’t over-prepare or under prepare for certain games. You have to take every game like it is the last game you are going to play and build off of that.”
The men’s team will take to the field in their first game of the season at Bethany College in West Virginia on Feb. 23.
