By Emily Coughlin
Staff Writer
The St. Bonaventure University women’s lacrosse team has had success so far this season due to its hard work.
Though the scores of its games vary, the Bonnies have been playing harder competitors than past seasons and have been practicing hard to play up to their levels, said sophomore attacker Molly Driscoll.
Practices are conducted in its next opponent’s style, so the Bonnies gets used to playing against its tactics.
This could include playing harder defense or stronger offense based on how the other team usually plays, said Driscoll.
“We have a fast pace practice (going from one drill to the next), which mimics our fast-paced game,” said junior midfielder Emily Foster.
Coach Chelsea Rosiek always does research on the upcoming opponents to learn about their usual strategies and plays, so that the Bonnies can practice skills to help them play hard against the next team, she said.
“We do weekly scouting reports on upcoming opponents, so we usually go through their systems to practice different ways we can be successful against them,” said Driscoll.
Working in practices this way helps the team focus in on its opponent’s tendencies, and it helps change the mindset of the team to how best to win its game, said Foster.
“We have been working most on taking care of the ball when encountering pressure and working on turnovers, so that we can get the ball down to our attacking end and shoot more often,” said Rosiek.
Once they are facing their opponents during games, the Bonnies focus on how the other team is playing, whether it is aggressively or with a faster offense, so the team can keep up and play against them in the most effective way.
“Our defense has done a great job with the shot clock, and as long as they can hold teams to 90 seconds with no shot (which we’ve done a few times this year), we can lower the score,” said Driscoll.
This season the Bonnies have been playing harder teams, which encourage them more to play their hardest, and it gives them a new feeling of motivation, knowing they have the possibility to win, said Foster.
“We have been playing much better teams this season, and been playing much more competitive, even if we are down,” said Rosiek.
The Bonnies are very close this year and have added many important freshmen who contribute a lot to the team.
With many players bringing different skills to the game, the team has more effectively played their better opponents.
“We have a lot more depth to our bench which is necessary for [a] high-speed game,” said Foster.
The team has high hopes for the beginning of its A10 games starting next week.
They cheer each other on and always lift each other up, and team support is the most important thing to them, said Driscoll.
“We play for each other and to showcase all the time and effort we put into this program,” said Foster.
The team is always striving to work harder and push themselves more, because in the end all that it puts in will show, said Rosiek.
“Our motto for this year is ‘hustle.’ We encourage each other to hustle for each other, go after every ground ball, and to hustle all over the field,” said Driscoll.
The Bonnies will next play on the road Friday at 4 p.m. against George Washington, then again Sunday at noon at George Mason.
coughleg16@bonaventure.edu
