By Pat Giblin
Contributing Writer
After finishing the 2018 season 0-17, the St. Bonaventure University women’s lacrosse team looks to put last year behind it and bring a positive and competitive attitude into the 2019 season. Team captains Rylee Arnold and Kathryn Yoder look to lead a team full of 21 promising underclassmen into a much more successful campaign.
In her fourth season, head coach Chelsea Rosiek has set the expectations and standards as the team gets ready for regular season.
“Our goal is to exceed expectations, not meet them,” said Rosiek. “Everyone is very motivated to win this season, and I think we all are looking forward to showcasing our hard work.”
On top of a motivation to win, Rosiek believes that the team is in a much better position heading into this year.
“What I love is that our offense is really intact and our defense is pretty much locked in,” said Rosiek.
She also added that the cardiovascular fitness of the team is up to par from last season.
“Moving into fall, we were clearly not only keeping up, but running around teams, which was very refreshing,” said Rosiek.
Although the Bonnies are still a younger team, the underclassmen are poised to step into their predecessors’ roles and be successful. Arnold and Yoder spoke highly of the underclassmen.
“They are definitely ready to go both mentally and skill-wise,” said Yoder. “I’m really excited to watch them play and develop into those strong, older players this year and in coming years, making us a very strong team.”
“Honestly, these underclassmen have been the most receptive out of any of them that we’ve had,” said Arnold. “They’ve been great, and they’ve been coming ready to go right out of high school.”
While the two captains spoke very highly of their counterparts, their coach, whom they have been with for the last three seasons, spoke rather highly of them in return.
“Both of them have fully invested themselves over four years,” said Rosiek of both Arnold and Yoder. “They have gone from above average players to probably two of the best players in the Atlantic 10 Conference, although they are not always acknowledged as such due to previous team records.”
Arnold and Yoder had impressive stats last season and led the team in several categories. Arnold netted 26 goals and added 32 points, both team highs. She was also able to score in an impressive 12 out of the 14 games she played.
Yoder, a defensive specialist, was able to record a team high 49 ground balls on her way to a spot on the Second-Team All-Conference Defense for the Atlantic 10.
On top of just single player improvement, the biggest goal for the team this year is to better its win-loss record from the 2018 season.
“I think in my mind a successful season would be seven wins, three of those being in conference,” said Rosiek. “If we could do, that it would be an incredible stepping stone for us, and I think it is completely within our reach.”
Arnold also expressed her desire to win more games as she enters her senior season.
“After coming off no wins from last season, a team can only go two different ways and that would be to either shutdown or completely go up. If we won five games going into conference, I think our confidence would be through the roof and we could win even more than three games in conference. Our team is very motivated to win this season.”
On top of a hope to be successful on the field this season, the team looks to continue its success in the classroom this semester. During the fall semester, the team put together one of the most successful academic semesters of recent knowledge with a team average 3.492 GPA.
The Bonnies will hit the field to start the 2019 regular season on Sunday, Feb. 10, as they take on the Lafayette College Leopards at the Marra Athletics Complex.
