Rachel Levy, Staff Writer

Last season, women’s lacrosse brought in seventeen freshmen, with many taking starting spots and bringing the team all the way to third place in the regular season for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). This was thought of as the start of a legacy that would build in the next years, but this did not seem to stand for the 2016 season.

The women’s team lost three seniors and many of the freshmen from the previous season, and only had four freshmen when games rolled around. Their first four games of the season were losses. While two of the games were held close, they still ended in a loss.

The team then took a trip to Hilton Head for spring break, playing Saint Mary’s College and Wentworth Institute of Technology, both big wins. It was a good trip for the girls, with their first two wins of the season, and they enjoyed a lot of team bonding, playing at the beach and around the island.

The high of spring break was short lived when they came back to Winchester to lose their next four games of the season and bring their season to a 2-8 record.

The ladies recently started their ODAC games, with hopes to turn around the season in the games that really matter. Unfortunately, they did not do that in their first two ODAC games, when they fell 18-6 against Washington and Lee University.  After a long break, the girls then traveled down to North Carolina, only to fall 15-12 against the Guilford Quakers.

Despite their poor record, the girls mesh very well off the field.

“It’s hard to see us not reach our potential when we know we can be doing better,” said sophomore captain, Jackie Hemler.

Individually the girls are very talented, they just need to trust each other and take risks during games to get the win. When the team does click, they do very well together.

Senior Evie Gaffney said she has faith in her teammates and coaches to rise above and push forward. The women need to place top six in the conference during regular season to get a bid into conference playoffs, but they will need to beat some tough teams to do so. Hopefully, they can turn their season around, and pull out some conference wins to earn a bid to ODACs.

Image courtesy of SUHornets