By Tommy Valentine, Staff Writer
Feb. 27, 2013, was a different time for St. Bonaventure University athletics. Tim Kenney was the associate athletic director at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The school didn’t offer men’s lacrosse, nor men’s and women’s track at the Division I level. Demetrius Conger was the leading scorer for Mark Schmidt’s men’s basketball team. And Jaylen Adams was a junior in high school.
That same day, the women’s lacrosse team also became 2-0 to open its season. Second-year head coach Ryan Lynn led his group against Coastal Carolina in a 14-7 win over the Chanticleers.
Fast forward nearly seven years and a lot of losing seasons later, the 2020 women’s lacrosse team has won back-to-back games for the first time since they made the trip back from Conway, South Carolina, in 2013.
The Bonnies are 2-0 on the young season after sweeping their opening weekend of games against the University of Hartford and Central Connecticut State University.
With the wins, the program doubled its win total from the last two years. And for a senior class that endured 46 losses over their careers, the hot start means that much more.
“It feels unreal, I don’t even have words to put to it,” said Destinee Johnson, a senior midfielder from Rochester, New York. “It really just shows how hard we’ve been working this entire year, and how we’ve bounced back hard from last year. We’re ready to come out and win and fight this year.”
Johnson was an integral part of the two victories over the weekend. She outscored Hartford 4-3 alone in the first half of Friday’s game in Connecticut. With the Bonnies up 9-3 heading to the break, Johnson padded her stats in the second half. She tallied one more goal and a late assist in the final 30 minutes, posting a game-high seven points on five goals and two assists. Junior attack/midfielder Ashley Easterday also pitched in with six points. Easterday scored four goals while collecting two assists.
It was just a 20-minute bus ride from Hartford to New Britain, Connecticut, for the Bonnies’ Sunday showdown with Central Connecticut State University. However, it wasn’t the dominant performance we saw from head coach Jason Levesque’s bunch two days prior.
St. Bonaventure headed into the locker room down 5-3, and quickly fell behind by three goals at the outset of the second half. But Johnson managed to catch fire yet again, rattling the cage four times in the second half. It was freshman midfielder Teri Manzelli who provided the go-ahead goal with 8:44 to play. The Bonnies never looked back, winning 10-9 and securing their second consecutive victory.
It was a weekend to remember for Johnson. The team’s top returning scorer collected 13 points, finding the back of the net 11 times, and distributed a pair of assists, en route to Atlantic 10 player of the week honors.
Johnson headlines a senior class that has made life much easier for their first-year head coach.
“We really tried to challenge our seniors,” said Levesque. “That group of four has been great. They’ve set the tone and are trying to set a new standard for our program. They’ve been great. It’s been a short time with them, but I’ve been thoroughly impressed.”
It wasn’t just the upperclassmen who shined this past weekend, however.
Nora Anderson, a freshman midfielder from Pittsford, New York., chipped in six points, notching three goals while dishing out three assists. Her first career goal came just six minutes into the game against Hartford. While the goal went unassisted, Anderson was quick to thank her teammates for the trust they instilled in her.
“Everybody on the team was super supportive,” said Anderson. “They had the confidence in me to take my defender and beat somebody. It was just really great having their support.”
Not only did the Bonnies sweep their weekend slate of games, they also swept the A10 weekly honors. The conference recognized Anderson as the conference’s rookie of the week.
“They [the freshmen] came in since day one working hard,” said Johnson. “They want it just as bad as we [the upperclassmen] want it, and that’s what we need. It’s been really fun working with them too.”
Given the past two seasons of struggles the Bonnies have had an argument could be made that the season has already been a success. But for Levesque, the time for celebrating is over. The last thing he wants from his team is for his players to get complacent. In his eyes, the job’s not done yet, and the focus is already on their next game.
“We have to have a short memory,” said Levesque. “Kent State is going to be coming in strong and ready to play. Our win last year was against Kent State at their place, so I think they’ll be coming in hungry to avenge that, and we need to be ready for it.”
St. Bonaventure will play host to Kent State University today in the team’s home opener. The Bonnies took down the Golden Flashes 18-10 last year. Friday’s game will be a chance for the Bonnies to move to 3-0, matching their best start since that 2013 season. Opening face-off at the Marra Athletics Complex is scheduled for 4 p.m.
valenttr19@bonaventure.edu
