By Stacy Troiano
The CAA women’s lacrosse tournament is set to take place this weekend, and for the second time in three years, the champion will be crowned right here at Shuart Stadium.
Hofstra won the regular season conference title and the right to host the tournament with its 12-9 victory over defending champs James Madison last weekend. The win capped off the top conference clip of 6-1 for the Pride, with their only loss coming to No. 3 seed Delaware.
The Pride will play 4th seeded Old Dominion in the first round, and James Madison and Delaware will meet in the other semifinal. The winners of each game will meet Sunday in the title came.
During the regular season, Hofstra defeated Old Dominion 7-6 in overtime, and JMU beat Delaware 19-16, but do remember it is tournament time. It’s lose and go home for most CAA teams, and this weekend will be each of these four team’s chance to move on.
“You’ve got to come out and play the game,” head coach Abby Morgan said. “You’ve got to bring big effort and fight for every minute.”
The Pride come into the tournament having won eight of their last ten games. They are a team that has indeed been firing on all cylinders and is ready to capture its first ever CAA title.
Hofstra is led by the senior trio of Becky Thorn, Casey McGrath and Kim Hillier, who have tallied 99 of the Pride’s 158 goals on the year, and 139 of the team’s 200 points. Hillier was also named this week’s CAA Player of the Week after notching nine points during the week with six goals and three assists.
This season the senior class became the most winningest class in Hofstra women’s lacrosse history. Morgan believes they have been prepared for this moment long enough, and their leadership has prepared the rest of the team for this.
“They have done a great job preparing the team mentally all season,” Morgan said. “Getting home field advantage and beating JMU, those aren’t our goals. We want the CAA championship. And the seniors have done a great job of keeping everybody focused on one game at a time.”
The Pride have also gotten strong performances from freshman midfielder Corrine Gandolfi and junior goalie Maisie Osteen, who is 10-4 on the year with a save percentage of .487 and goals against average of just 9.72. The Hofstra defense has been a key part of the recent success as well, anchored by senior co-captain Kim Kozlowski. Morgan will look for all aspects of the team to click on Friday against a strong Old Dominion team in the first semifinal.
The Monarchs come into the tournament at 4-3 in the CAA, led by strong scoring threats in Kelly Kimener, Caroline Jacobs and Jessica Noone. Morgan said ODU’s slow, disciplined play makes them a difficult team to beat.
“They will really wait for opportunities on the attacking end,” Morgan said. “We just have to understand their style of play and not get caught up with it. We have to keep with our balance of fast breaks and ball control.”
James Madison finished conference play with a record of 5-2 and ranked 14th in the nation with just four losses on the year. The Dukes have six players with 20 or more goals, led by Annie Wagner who has tallied an amazing 55 goals this season.
The second-seeded Dukes will have to do battle with No. 3 seed Delaware, who also bring a balanced scoring attack with five players who have more than 30 goals on the year. Blue Hen goalie Jessica Cerveny’s goals against average of 9.53 ranks third in the CAA and best of the four teams in the tournament.
Hofstra has been to the conference title game the past two years, losing in 2005 to Towson 18-15, and in 2006 to James Madison 14-8. The senior class, the rest of the Pride, and Coach Morgan are looking to avenge those losses this weekend and bring home that ever-elusive CAA title and move on to the 16-team NCAA tournament.
But that’s all thinking way ahead, right now Morgan said she is focused on one game at a time, as she has been all season.
“We have to stick with the things that got us to this point in the season,” she said. “Not being caught up in other teams and the uncontrollables and just playing Hofstra is what got us here and what will bring us to our goal.”
“If we play the way we’re capable of playing,” Morgan said, “I think there’s no stopping us.”
