By Eric Botti
Elm Staff Writer
The Washington College women’s lacrosse program is starting up again this spring with faces new and old, but all of them committed to making it to the championship tournament come May.
The majority of the team are veterans who have played for WC for at least two years. The full rundown of the roster is five freshmen, four sophomores, five juniors, and eight seniors this spring. In addition to five new players, the Shorewomen also have a new head coach, Kate Fowler.
Coach Fowler became the head coach of Shorewomen lacrosse in July 2018. She has a history of success in lacrosse, winning the national championship of DIII NCAA women’s lacrosse while playing at Hamilton College which she graduated from in 2010. She also was an assistant coach at Gettysburg College when they won back to back championships in 2017 and 2018.
This season, the Shorewomen have set goals to do what they couldn’t do last season.
“Last year, we fell short of playing in the Centennial Conference championship. I know that is in all the returners minds, and that thought has trickled down to the newcomers as well,” senior captain Cecily Docktor said.
Docktor knows that the road to playing in the championship is not going to be easy.
“We have a tough schedule this year with our Conference always being competitive,” she said.
She isn’t exaggerating; seven out of the last ten Division III championships have been won by teams from the WC region. If the team wants a shot this year they have to compete with the best.
That being said, they are ready to face this challenge and have a plan in mind: “We’ve been focused on taking one game at a time and each game is as important as the last. For now, the focus is on our first game against York,” Docktor said.
The team has been training hard to get ready for this season, harder than Docktor has ever seen them before.
“This is the hardest working team I have been a part of, but with that it is also the most excited team I’ve been a part of,” she said. “This is the most committed our team has ever been.”
The Shorewomen’s first game is on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at versus York College. They are excited to show off their new talent and sharpened skills of the first time this spring and Docktor believes “the extra work, whether that be shooting, wall ball or conditioning will definitely show this spring.”
Docktor’s greatest concern is, come midseason, the team will have to consistently bring the fire to every game, lift, and practice. She believes her team really supports each other and learned from past mistakes in order to power through that roadblock.
You can support the Shorewomen at their first home game on Tuesday, March 12 at 1 p.m. versus the Coast Guard.