2003 Elizabethtown College
Women's Lacrosse Preview
The Elizabethtown College women's lacrosse program is in just its second year of existence, and new head coach Aimee Seward
is impressed with what she has found in this team. Last year, the Blue
Jays, consisting almost entirely of freshmen and possessing no previous
collegiate lacrosse experience, not even as a club team, finished 4-10
overall and 2-6 in the Middle Atlantic Conference. Four of the losses
came by margins of three goals or less. There was a general perception
last year that, "For a first year program, they were doing very, very
well," observed Seward, who was an assistant at Gettysburg at the time.
This
year, the task at hand is to build upon the strong foundation begun in
2002. Helping Seward in this task is a tendency she noticed
immediately, "They are very enthusiastic and really eager to learn. And
everybody on the team is like that."
Most of
the team's experience, she noted, is centered in the attack. The Blue
Jays return first team All-Commonwealth Conference attacker Liz Fretz (Parkerford, PA/Owen J. Roberts), who finished second in the MAC with 60 goals and fourth in the conference with 68 points. Also back is attack wing Jen Manns (Wilmington, DE/Brandywine),
who scored 31 goals and finished ninth in the MAC in goals per game,
compiled 20 assists and finished eighth in the conference in assists
per game, and totaled 51 points to finish ninth in the conference in
points per game. Additionally, Seward expects midfielder Ally Edel (Bel Air, MD/John Carroll School), who had 10 goals, 10 assists and 20 points last year, to emerge as one of the team's top offensive producers as well.
At this point, Edel and sophomore defenders Sara Scholl (Forest Hill, MD/John Carroll School) and Stephanie Boyle (Folsom, PA/Ridley) seem to have emerged as the team's principal leaders.
There
are also quite a few incoming freshmen who could make sizeable impacts
on the team's fortunes this year, most notably attacker Meghen Riegger (Phoenix, MD/Catholic H.S. of Baltimore), midfielder Danielle Grooms (Frederick, MD/Gov. Thomas Johnson), and defenders Michelle Collier (Plymouth Meeting, PA/Plymouth Whitemarsh) and Leah Robinson (Huntingtown, MD/Calvert).
Seward
has identified one of this team's main strengths as being its "strong
attackers who are good at driving one-v.-one." She was quick to add,
though, "They are still figuring out defense and transition,"
especially due to the fact that outdoor practice time during the
preseason has been drastically limited due to the persistent snow cover
that has plagued the Northeast. Seward has also said, "I try to get
kids to discover answers by themselves." With a team as young as
Elizabethtown, she has noted there is a need to improve the on-field
improvisation she describes as "freelancing."
There are some question marks on defense as well, most notably in the goal. This fall, the team did not actually have a goaltender on the roster. Enter Lisa Marquette (Lebanon, PA/Cedar Crest), the highly successful sophomore goaltender of the field hockey team who earned conference Player of the Week honors this fall. The addition of Marquette to the team has brought a great deal of stability to the defense, and, being an expert goaltender in field hockey, she already knows how to do things like take away angles for shots and break up plays in front of the goal.
That said, Marquette hails from Lebanon
County, Pa., a region where lacrosse is as yet essentially
non-existent. "She never saw lacrosse before," remarked Seward, meaning
that the new goalie is currently getting a crash-course in learning the
game and dealing with high airborne shots and a netted stick. How
quickly Marquette adjusts to the game will make a strong impact on the team's defense.
This year, Elizabethtown's goal is to finish in the top four teams in the conference, thereby earning a postseason berth in the MAC playoffs. More importantly, Seward emphasizes, especially with such a young team, is to take things one game at a time and improve every day. If those smaller goals are pursued successfully, the team's larger goals may well fall into place.
