Nolan Potts, ‘Doah Staff Writer
March 4, 2015

While winter weather has been wreaking havoc on much of the eastern portion of the United States, it has forced a lot of cancellations and postponements of sporting events here at Shenandoah University. For example, the S.U. baseball team was supposed to start its season Feb. 14 and as of Feb. 27; the team still hasn’t had their first contest. Luckily for teams such as the women’s lacrosse team, they play on a turf field that can the snow can be easily removed from. It might be chilly out there, but the women’s lacrosse team is off and running as they’re three games into their campaign. The ladies boast a 2-1 record after defeating Lebanon Valley 8-7 on Feb. 22 and knocking off Frostburg State 9-7 on Feb. 24. The lone defeat on the young season was to Mary Washington by a score of 15-6 on Feb. 18. There are high hopes for the ladies this year as they were picked to finish fourth in the ODAC Preseason Poll. The team also received one first place vote. Fourth might be good enough for some teams but not for this one, and based off of their past success the last couple of years they see no reason why they can’t win the conference in 2015.

If they’re going to accomplish their goal of finishing atop the conference other players are going to have to step up. A year ago, the Hornets had seven players earn an All-ODAC honor at the conclusion of the season. Of those seven, four have since graduated (Ashley Cross, Samantha Donaghy, Erin Oliver and Samantha Sisson). These are not easy shoes to fill especially considering that Sisson finished her career as the program’s all-time leader in goals, assists, points and draw controls. In addition to Sisson’s accomplishments, Ashley Cross left the program as the program’s all-time leader in saves and goalkeeper wins. However, the team has plenty of talented returners including the other three All-ODAC honorees in sophomore Brittany Arndt and seniors (and co-captains) Liz Bereit and Juli Carbone. Bereit piled up a total of 67 points last year (40 goals, 27 assists) which was second to Sisson’s 77. Bereit also had 29 caused turnovers and 16 free position goals, both of which led the team. Arndt led the team in draw controls with 52 and Carbone had 31 groundballs; 16 caused turnovers and five draw controls.

So far through three games in the 2015 season, the team is led by Bereit’s nine goals while freshmen Annie McCorry and Cortney Gensemer have each tallied three. Freshman Rachel Levy is faced with the task of replacing Ashley Cross and so far has done a good job for coach Lindsey Lutz. She has played all possible minutes in goal thus far (180 minutes) and has 25 saves. Levy was named ODAC Player of the Week on Feb. 23.

The ladies are back in action on Mar. 4 when they travel to Marymount. Their next home game will be Mar. 14 with a 1:00 p.m. contest against Lynchburg. All home games are free with your S.U. student ID card. Come out and support the women’s lacrosse team as they look to take the ODAC by storm and finish at the top of the standings!