By Pat Mariboe
Senior Sports Writer
Washington College’s women’s lacrosse team has been in superb form the past few years, and show no signs of slowing down, as they finished with an 11-7 overall record this past season on their way to a record seventh straight winning season. The Shorewomen have also qualified for the Centennial Conference playoffs the past six seasons, most recently finishing with a 6-3 record in the CC ending with a narrow 10-4 defeat to Gettysburg in the playoffs. Despite the team’s recent insurmountable success, fourth-year head coach Heidi Yetman sees a lot in store for her team this season.
“Our team has been working really hard for seven seasons to get to where we are now and because our conference keeps getting more and more competitive, it has forced us to work harder and harder every single year,” she said. “The players I recruit have to be more and more athletic each year in terms of overall speed and athleticism and our stick skills have to be better. With those two key aspects in existence, we can focus more on our technical and tactical skills. We prepare for each game differently. We hope that this will continue to keep our momentum going forward.”
This past November, Coach Yetman named seniors Anna Inserra, Cara Pascarella, and Haylee Solomon as team captains. Yetman knows that not only her captains, but the entire bulk of her team, will be ready to fire on all cylinders in their opening game of the season against Christopher Newport on Feb. 24. The team will be a familiar face for the Shorewomen, who played them in last year’s season opener as well, with the Shorewomen coming out on top 14-11. The team looks to replicate that success this time around.
“Our mindset is really positive,” Yetman said. “We have a great group this year and everyone is working harder than normal. The girls have been doing lots of individual sessions focusing on individual skills that help improve the overall play of the group. We want to start the season off strong and stay consistent this spring.”
In addition to putting in hours of hard work this past year, the team also put their efforts towards Yards for Yeardley. In their third year of participating, the Shorewomen ran a total of 1,400,870 yards in January in remembrance of Yeardley Love, a fellow lacrosse player at the University of Virginia who tragically lost her life in a domestic violence case in 2010.
Yetman spoke on the program and how their team can come together to make a positive impact both on and off the field.
“Yards for Yeardley is an amazing program and I love that our team comes together to support this,” she said. “I think their dedication to this program displays who they are as a group. and I’m proud of them and think it translates on the field. Once they feel connected to something and have a goal, they go after it.”