By Anders Jorstad – STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra Pride women’s lacrosse team welcomes many new faces this season after seeing a lot of its main contributors graduate last season.
While many of the new recruits are rookies to the game of college lacrosse, attacker Lindsay Scott brings a lot of experience and success to her new teammates.
A transfer from the University of North Carolina, a traditional lacrosse powerhouse, Scott chose to depart the Tar Heels for her last year of eligibility to don the blue and gold for one season.
“I always knew I wanted to graduate from my undergrad in four years,” Scott explained as her reason for departing UNC. “Last spring, I realized that I wasn’t ready to stop playing lacrosse and even though I loved UNC, I thought my time there was done.
“I was going to be leaving my classmates who were my best friends. I couldn’t picture myself playing with anyone else, playing without them, so I decided to branch away from there and see what other schools could offer for me.”
Even though Scott played for four years with UNC, she retained one more year of eligibility after her freshman year was cut short. Scott suffered a season-ending sprained ankle and a sprained wrist after her collegiate debut on Feb. 15, 2012.
Even though Scott saw most of her personal success in 2014 with North Carolina, she views 2013 as her favorite season.
“In 2013 we [UNC] won the national championship and that was probably the highlight of my life,” Scott said. “We won in triple overtime which was pretty thrilling.”
Her experience in a championship environment will be invaluable to a Pride team stacked with young players and hungry for its first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade. Scott’s veteran status leads many of her younger teammates to look up to her as a role model.
“It’s just interesting because as much as I’m a fifth-year senior, I’m a freshman at the same time,” Scott said about being a leader for her new team. “I’m kind of taking on two roles so it’s kind of cool to watch them look up to me even though I’m brand new to the team.”
Scott is certainly a leader on the field as well. Through the first two games of the season the graduate student has six goals and two straight hat tricks.
The Pride lost both of its first two contests to New Hampshire and Harvard. “It was good to start myself off on the right foot,” Scott said detailing her first hat trick in the loss to New Hampshire.
“As much as I wish that we could have come away with the win there, I just know that given that game, I still was able to do what I wanted to do and it just shows that we can still become better from there.”
Scott will look to lead a talented but inexperienced Hofstra squad to a winning season and possibly a CAA championship. The Pride has a long way to go but for Scott it’s always just a step at a time.
“I’m always looking forward to the next game, not to any game ahead of that,” Scott said about her mentality. “Always looking to the next game, looking to go 1-0 in a week.”
Hofstra will try to go 1-0 next week when they host the Fairfield Stags at James M. Shuart Stadium on Saturday with game time set for noon. Look for Scott to continue to rack up goals against her opponents and help guide her teammates for the rest of the season.
