photos by Catharine Hernson
This year, the lacrosse team is hoping to keep their momentum of recent years and take home another championship. In order to prepare for the season, Head Coach Jackie Neary had the team practicing at six in the morning twice a week.”It was hard,” sophomore team member Annmarie Smith said. “It was well worth it though. It got us conditioned so we weren’t worried about that when we got to Florida.”
“It was all a part of the spring training for the team,” Neary said. “We started in January and it’s all a matter of the availability of the team.”
Recently, the Lady Cavaliers took a trip to a camp run by the Ursinus alumni in Florida. Neary, who was coached at Temple by Ursinus’ coach, took the team to help prepare them for the season.
Smith describes the trip as simply “awesome” and feels the trip as a success for the team. “The weather wasn’t always up to par, but we had a great time on and off the field,” Smith said. “We played with different coaches, which gave us a variety of news skills that we have put into our skill as a team.” Coach Neary feels the trip was a major plus for the team, allowing them to be coached by a professional and having new strategies to implement into their work this year.
Stephanie Masucci, a senior member of the lacrosse team, thinks that the team learned a lot in Florida. Most importantly, they learned that winning games doesn’t depend on individuals by themselves. “We’re a really well-rounded team this year,” Masucci said, “but we know that winning is a team thing and it depends on all of us.”
While the team as a whole is an important focus this season, Masucci has noticed the new goalie standing out. The goalie, Jamie Knobler, is a freshman. “We’ve had the same goalie for the last few years, then Jamie came in this year and she’s basically doing awesome.”
Neary has noticed that the team coming together this year has helped Knobler as a freshman member of the team. “The players ahead of her have been trying to set an example,” Neary said, “and they really give her confidence with each game.”
The team this year seems prepared and very focused on their goal to win the championship again. “It’s the most diverse team of personalities I have been on,” Smith said. We work together to accomplish a win, and we’ve been having a great time doing it.”
This year, there are expectations to live up to the successes of previous years. Recently though, the team has been picked by the PAC sponsored magazine as the number one team to go to the PAC. “We have won the past couple of years,” Smith said. “Every team always starts out the season sure that they will win.” Neary agrees and points out that Lacrosse Magazine has picked Cabrini a favorite in their conference.
While they’ve set the bar as high as possible, the women’s lacrosse team seems very confident in adding another championship to their list of accomplishments. And Tuesday was no exception.
On Tuesday, the Lady Cavaliers defeated Eastern with a score of 20-5. “It was our biggest win this season,” Masucci said. The Lady Cavaliers, who lost to Eastern last year, were looking to avenge their loss and did just that. “Since they beat us last year, it was pretty big to beat them the way we did,” Masucci said.
The loss to Eastern last year was Cabrini’s only conference loss, which makes Tuesday’s win even bigger. The team is now 5-1 in their standing, making Neary feel that this team has the confidence they need for another winning season.
