By Andrew Chirico
Senior Writer
Following two consecutive seasons posting an 11-5 record, the Washington College Women’s Lacrosse team has high expectations heading into its 2016 season. Third year Head Coach Heidi Yetman returns a stellar seven players who started in at least nine games last season.
After going 7-2 in Centennial Conference play and 11-5 overall, the team’s season and tournament run came to a finish after losing in the Centennial Conference Tournament semifinal round to then-ranked No. 6 Franklin and Marshall. This season, WC is without five of its senior starters from last season, most notably Carolina Lovett and Emily Hubley, the team’s two leading scorers from last season. Both combined for 39 percent of the goals from the 2015 season.
Luckily for the offense, senior captain Carley Kendall and junior Ali Dudley return. Dudley tallied 18 goals meanwhile Kendall, who scored 24 goals and had four assists, is very optimistic for this upcoming season.
“We have high expectations for this season, we have so much potential and so much talent so we need to make the most out of this group,” said Kendall. “This team is highly self-motivated. They don’t need much push from anyone to work hard. I think the most important part of my leadership role this year is to just be a backbone for my teammates.”
Yetman believes that variety of players will help replace last year’s graduates. “As for replacing the leading scorer, I believe on the attacking end we will see contributions from several members of the team and we have varying heights, dominant hands and styles of play. So I am excited to see how they connect and which connections work the best together.” The defense returns plenty of depth, including junior Daniela Falcone, junior captain Anna Inserra, and senior captain Rachel Kurtz. Falcone totaled for 18 caused turnovers and groundballs last season. Kurtz scooped 15 groundballs and caused five turnovers. Inserra only played in three games before having a season ending injury. After missing last season, Inserra is honored to step into a leadership position as a junior. “Becoming a captain has been humbling, I am the voice of my teammates and constantly providing support to all members of this team,” she said. With quality sessions of preseason practice, Inserra has set the bar high for the team this season.
“These past couple of weeks we’ve really come together on attack and defense, and we’re learning how to work together in both units,” she said. “I expect us to make it to the conference tournament again and hopefully we’ll come out on top this time.”
Along with defensive experience comes depth at the goalie position for WC. Junior Haylee Solomon is the anticipated starter after playing in 15 games last season. Solomon had a save percentage of .490 due to her 76 total saves. Behind Solomon is junior Maddie Mullen who played in 10 games last season and had 35 saves. In the mix is junior Megan Voss and freshman Isabella Richardson.
“The goals this year include staying healthy, pushing each other to learn and develop as individuals, teammates, and as a unified group. We want to demonstrate pride and passion for each other and Washington College and establish ourselves as a better team than last year,” said Yetman. “We want to make it further than we did last year.”
The Shorewomen will begin their 2016 campaign on Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. when they travel to play Christopher Newport College for a non-conference showdown. The game can be seen via live-stream on WC’s athletics website.