By Nick Mazzarella – STAFF WRITER
After finishing 8-10 overall and 2-3 in the CAA, the Hofstra women’s lacrosse team was picked to finish third, tied with Delaware, in the conference’s preseason poll.
Senior attacker Brittain Altomare and senior defender April Iannetta – two first team All-CAA members in 2014 – were named to the preseason All-CAA team.
Senior goalie Kelsey Gregerson, who ranked fourth in the nation in save percentage and eighth in goals against average last year, was an honorable mention selection.
Altomare led the Pride last season in goals (30) and assists (36) for a total of 66 points. Iannetta, the 2014 CAA Defensive Player of the Year, scored 12 goals and picked up 34 ground balls.
“We’re really fortunate this year that we have a great senior class returning,” said third-year head coach Shannon Smith. “It’s really fun to watch the six of them every day at practice get after it and lead the team.”
That experience can only help a team that brought in 11 freshmen. With so many new faces come a lot of freshman mistakes, but some first-year players have stood out to Smith.
According to her, freshman Grayson Corbett has done a phenomenal job on the defensive side of the ball and junior Lindsey Alfano has done a great job of leading the five freshmen in the midfield.
Asked about players whom she expects to play a bigger role this season, Smith spoke of two sophomores: Morgan Knox and Tiana Parrella. She wants more from the attack duo who had, in her words, “OK freshman years.”
“With Morgan, Tiana and Brittain, you kind of have a big three on the offensive side of the field,” said Smith. “They all can score goals from anywhere.”
Hofstra’s out-of-conference schedule features four teams that made last year’s NCAA tournament: Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State and Stony Brook. The Pride will host the defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Terrapins on Feb. 28.
“The past two years, we kind of had an easy non-conference schedule,” Smith said. “We needed to make it more competitive to prepare us for conference play.”
“Our conference is extremely competitive,” she added. “It’s kind of like a backyard brawl.”
Reigning CAA champion Towson was picked to finish first in the preseason poll. The Tigers beat James Madison – picked to finish second – by one goal in last season’s CAA title game.
Following the 2014 season, the Pride wanted to improve offensively. They needed to find multiple scoring threats in order to make their attack dynamic, which would make Hofstra hard to scout and cover.
Smith’s goal of a CAA championship resonates with Iannetta and Altomare, who have one more chance to get a ring.
They, as well as the four other seniors, have flirted with one a few times. Their first three seasons ended with two semifinals losses (2012, 2014) and one finals loss (2013).
“It’s really important to us to get to that championship and actually win it because we’ve been so close in the past,” said Iannetta. “We really want that to be how we are remembered at this school – the class that got back that CAA championship.”
“We pretty much talk about it every single day how we want to go out with a CAA championship,” said Altomare. “Now that we’re nearing our last season, it puts everything into perspective…it would mean everything to us.”
It’s now or never for Smith’s six seniors to finish the job and punch their tickets to the NCAA tournament. She knows that.
“I think they have unfinished business.”
