After three consecutive games on Schoellkopf Field, the women’s lacrosse team will be venturing out to Hempstead, NY on Sunday to take on Hofstra. Although the women have their loss to Notre Dame fresh in their minds, they have put it behind them and play some solid lacrosse this weekend. The Red is also excited to have the opportunity to travel for the first time all season.
“Away games are always interesting. We love playing at home but the away experience shows a whole different side of the team,” said senior captain Margaux Viola.
Showing a new side is exactly what this team is trying to do. The Red currently has a 1-2 record for the start of the season, but this weekend will hopefully be the turnaround that this squad needs.
[img_assist|nid=21997|title=That’s gotta hurt|desc=Senior Alison McKeown and junior Charlotte Schmidlapp sandwich an opponent in the Red’s 11-10 overtime loss to Rutgers on Feb. 24.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=80]
“I think that we are looking to learn from our first three games and definitely looking to improve,” said head coach Jennifer Graap ’86. “It’s not always easy starting off with a couple losses but as long we are learning from them and becoming better in all aspects of the game then I am okay with that.”
Ignoring weather-related chaos, practice this week was far from standard. Based on the difficulties the women have had in the last few games, they realized that the best approach toward this weekend was to take the game back to the basics. Against Notre Dame, the team really struggled with draw control, which led to desperation in front of the net and a lot of unnecessary fouls. Instead of getting disheartened, the Red used this week to channel its frustration into a positive new outlook for this weekend.
“I think the attitude is that we were a little frustrated, but we’ve moved beyond that into looking to fix the problem. We want to get our confidence up and have fun,” said Graap. “We do need to take a step back and realize that this is a game. There is a fun aspect to competing and we need to find that joy.”
Hofstra, a team known to be very aggressive and “scrappy”, will certainly provide the Red with a challenge. However, Hofstra, ranked #16, suffered a difficult loss of their own last weekend to #17 BU. They will definitely approach the Red with something to prove.
“We can usually expect them to be a strong team, although we are really trying to focus mainly on ourselves,” said Viola. “In order to win we just need to step back and take the pressure off.”
This game will hopefully give the women a chance to kick it up a notch and really pull all of their talent and hard work together. Although the women intend to hand Hofstra another defeat on Sunday they have a larger goal in mind. They know that in order to win this weekend and succeed in the rest of the season they have to remember, above all else, to truly enjoy the game.
“This weekend, I want to see more of a unified team. I want to see discipline in the way they play and stick to the game plan. Mostly, I want to see them come together and have fun,” said Graap.