Women off to strong start
Team hot out of the gate behind high-scoring freshmen
Evan MacDonald
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Sports
After a rocky start to the season, the Emerson women's lacrosse team has kicked it up a notch behind the play of some fierce new freshmen.
Since starting the season with a 19-4 loss at Wheaton College, the girls have reeled off six wins in their seven games since, bringing their record to 6-2 (1-0 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference) on the season. The team has also already matched its win total from last season with seven games remaining to play.
A major reason for the turnaround has been the contributions of six new freshmen-attackmen Katie Dodge and Monica Carroll; midfielders Katie Peters, Maeghan Ross and Laura Miley and defenseman Lauren Festa. The first-year players have accounted for 69 of the team's 105 goals in seven of their games games. Statistics were not kept for the team's away game at Methodist University in Richmond, Va.
Peters, who has netted 16 goals so far this season, said a lot of the team's early success has to do with the trip they took to Virginia and Delaware over spring break to practice and play two games and a number of scrimmages.
"We really came together as a team over spring break," the digital post-production major said. "Offensively, we really learned each others' games."
Head Coach Michael Blanchard said he is not surprised the team has started so well after the tough pre-season schedule.
"They had some tough scrimmages," Blanchard said. "They were tested and pushed, and it helped them. It helped elevate their game collectively."
Ross said that the transition to a new college team was easier because of the quality of programs each freshman participated in during their high school careers.
"We all came from very strong teams," the organizational and political communication major said. "I felt like it was very easy to fit in right away. There was never an awkward moment or a place where it felt uncomfortable."
Miley, a marketing communication major, said the team was very prepared for their schedule due to the amount of practice they put in during the preseason. She said the team trained daily, alternating each day between conditioning and turf drills, where they worked on their passing and stick handling.
Since starting the season with a 19-4 loss at Wheaton College, the girls have reeled off six wins in their seven games since, bringing their record to 6-2 (1-0 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference) on the season. The team has also already matched its win total from last season with seven games remaining to play.
A major reason for the turnaround has been the contributions of six new freshmen-attackmen Katie Dodge and Monica Carroll; midfielders Katie Peters, Maeghan Ross and Laura Miley and defenseman Lauren Festa. The first-year players have accounted for 69 of the team's 105 goals in seven of their games games. Statistics were not kept for the team's away game at Methodist University in Richmond, Va.
Peters, who has netted 16 goals so far this season, said a lot of the team's early success has to do with the trip they took to Virginia and Delaware over spring break to practice and play two games and a number of scrimmages.
"We really came together as a team over spring break," the digital post-production major said. "Offensively, we really learned each others' games."
Head Coach Michael Blanchard said he is not surprised the team has started so well after the tough pre-season schedule.
"They had some tough scrimmages," Blanchard said. "They were tested and pushed, and it helped them. It helped elevate their game collectively."
Ross said that the transition to a new college team was easier because of the quality of programs each freshman participated in during their high school careers.
"We all came from very strong teams," the organizational and political communication major said. "I felt like it was very easy to fit in right away. There was never an awkward moment or a place where it felt uncomfortable."
Miley, a marketing communication major, said the team was very prepared for their schedule due to the amount of practice they put in during the preseason. She said the team trained daily, alternating each day between conditioning and turf drills, where they worked on their passing and stick handling.
Be the first to comment on this story