By Justin Paley
During this season the Pride women’s lacrosse team played with confidence and high spirits. Since the team was not awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the end to this year’s season presented an overall disappointing emotional state, and a feeling of defeat.
The Pride held its own fate when they faced Towson in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship game on May 1st for an automatic bid to the big dance but suffered an 18-15 loss. Tigers Shannon Witzel and Becky Trumbo were the main reasons for the Pride’s loss, as they combined for 12 goals.
Despite not making the NCAA Tournament, Pride head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe is still pleased with the Pride’s season. “The girls had a lot of goals and fell short of a couple of them,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “Overall it was one of most successful seasons in program history. I’m proud of the strides we made nationally, getting into top ten IWLCA rankings. It’s a goal since I’ve been here. We’ll keep on improving the team each year. No doubt in my mind, we improved from last year.”
Not expected the Pride to perform as it did this year. In preseason conference polls, the Pride was shown no respect, as it was chosen to finish fifth.
The Pride exceeded expectations as it finished the season 14-4 while winning the regular season CAA title. Its 14 victories are the second most in team history, behind the 2001 team which had 16 wins and earned the teams last NCAA appearance.
While the Pride loses nine seniors, five of which are starters, it does return their top three goal scorers along with an experienced goalie.
To start the season, senior Lisa Papa was the main net-minder. However, freshman Maisie Osteen was able to win the starting job and started 14 games. Osteen finished with an 7.43 goals against average (GAA) while Papa finished her senior season with an 8.22 GAA.
Junior Becky Thorn made the switch to midfield after playing attack for her first two years. Thorn became a solid all-around player, which the coaching staff had hoped for. Thorn led the Pride with 39 goals and 50 draw controls while picking up 37 ground balls.
The Pride received help from its sophomore class at many times throughout the year. Kim Hillier blocked any thoughts about a second year slump, scoring 29 goals while adding a team-high 14 assists. Casey McGrath also emerged as an offensive threat, tallying 28 goals and 10 assists after only scoring six points as a freshman.
Among the departing Pride faithful are Jill Wienecke (12 G, 5 A) and Jen Maget (8 G, 4 A), both clutch players on the attack depth chart. Starting midfielders Tara Buecker (26 G, 5 A) and Caitlin Connolly (16 G, 9 A, 46 GB) also both graduate.
The biggest loss is on the defense as Bridget Eder and Danielle Skakandi both say goodbye. Skakandi had 21 groundballs while Eder led the Pride with 58 groundballs and 47 caused turnovers.
The Pride started the season with four consecutive victories, tying the 1985 team for the best start in school history. Among the victories was a 9-8 win against #9 Loyola, the highest ranked victory for the Pride since 2002.
Boston University handed the Pride an 8-7 loss on March 16. The Pride, ranked No.7 in the country, had a 7-6 lead with 8:46 left in the contest, but No.17 BU scored two late goals to pull an upset. BU went on to win the America East Conference and earn the third overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
The Pride responded by winning seven straight games. During the streak, the Pride routed local rival Stony Brook, 16-6 in the first-ever match-up between Long Island’s only Division I lacrosse programs. Thorn and Hillier each scored four goals in the victory.
The Pride came from behind to defeat Delaware, 11-9, and defeated Old Dominion, 9-8, in double overtime as McGrath scored the game winner with 2:11 left in the second overtime.
William and Mary ended the streak with an, 11-9, victory on April 10th in Williamsburg, Va. It was the first time the Pride allowed an opponent to score more than ten goals during the season, becoming the final team in all of Division I to do so.
The Pride won its last two regular season conference games against James Madison and George Mason to clinch first place in the CAA and the right to host the conference tournament.
Playing without the injured Hillier and Maget, the Pride lost its regular season finale, 8-7, to Boston College in double overtime on senior day. A day meant to be celebrated, but ended in a bitter feeling.
A week later in the CAA semifinals, the Pride easily handled Delaware, winning, 9-4, behind Buecker and Hillier who both had four tallies.
While the loss of an array of talent will hurt the Pride somewhat, it also retained many outstanding performers. Next years team will have the task of performing to the standards of this year’s squad which gave a tremendous effort and should be proud of what they accomplished.