By Alana Pelosi

The women’s lacrosse team looks to rebound from their loss to Cornell as they head out west today.  It will be no easy task however, as they face Northwestern and Notre Dame, both of whom beat the Pride last season.

If last season’s match up proves to be any indication, Notre Dame will be a particularly interesting game.  Last year, it was a back and forth battle coming down to a game winning goal by the Fightin’ Irish in the last minutes of the game.

Northwestern, who just happens to have won the national championship for the last four seasons, will be the toughest team they face all season.

Of their road trip, head coach Abby Morgan says, “It’s a big trip for us. The last couple of practices we’ve been focusing on adding to our defense and offense and hopefully we’re ready.”

Last year against Northwestern, Hofstra was massacred 22-4. This year, the margin should definitely narrow, but it will taken a lot to overcome the Wildcats today.

Against Notre Dame on Saturday, the Pride will have to play hard until the end. Hofstra may have lost 14-13 to Notre Dame last year, but it was tied 7-7 going into halftime and it was neck and neck until the last minutes. “We match up pretty well in terms of speed and defense,” said Morgan, “it’s definitely going to be a battle and will be a good showdown.”

While Northwestern will be a difficult match, the team matches up nicely against Notre Dame. In order to walk away from this trip with at least one win, they cannot let nerves get to them, and that includes lingering doubts from Cornell. In the 13-10 loss, Hofstra was not out matched, but struggle with their shots. “We played pretty well for the majority of the game. We didn’t shoot very well and their goalie made a lot of saves,” said Morgan.

Another factor in the road trip is the play of a few key players. Against Cornell, junior K’Leigh Vanaman scored five goals. Morgan hopes that will boast Vanaman’s confidence and start the scoring campaigns that she is capable of. Another player who Morgan would like to see more confidence out of is senior Lauren Whitcomb, who began the season with a lot of goals. Confidence is not the problem for transfer Liz Falco, but her ribs are. Falco banged up her ribs earlier in the season in a scrimmage and has been dad-to-day since then, but has seen action. Feeling better, she got in against Cornell and scored right away.

In terms of the defense, Morgan couldn’t be happier. Led by senior Alysse Ruszkowski and sophomore Katie Hertsch, the defense is unshaken and, as Morgan describes, “very consistent.”

The biggest thing the Pride needs to do is take the Cornell lost as a learning experience. Morgan summed it up by saying, “It was a bit of a gut check as to how hard you have to play for the whole game. The whole 60 minutes it.”