Shane Ostroski

Sports Editor

If there is one word that best describes the last three seasons for the Marywood Women’s Lacrosse Team, that word would be improvement. In their inaugural season the Pacers took their lumps and went 3-12. The following year the team improved their record to 7-9, including finishing 4-4 in CSAC play. Last season the fifth seeded Pacers made some noise in the CSAC playoffs defeating fourth seed College of Notre Dame on the road to earn the program’s first post-season victory. The Pacers also finished the year with a program best 9 wins and avoided a losing season as the team went 9-9.

So what can one expect from the 2011 Pacers? Improvement, of course. The team, under the guidance of Head Coach Rob Brooks, enters the season with a majority of familiar faces as only two players were lost to graduation Kelly Kuzicki and Carrie Glenn. Kuzicki was the fourth leading scorer for the Pacers last season while Glenn was named to the CSAC Second Team All- Conference for her play as a defenseman. “Kelly and Carrie were very good players for us, they played hard and made some big plays. We know it won’t be easy to replace them but we are confident that we can,” said Junior Defenseman Stephanie Naro.

The Pacers do have a go to player in Junior Attacker Taylor Mckeown. McKeown finished last season ranked third nationally in goals with 84 and tenth in points with 95. There is no doubt teams will be focused on Stopping McKeown which could open the door for some of her teammates.

One such benefactor should be Allie Sodl. The Senior Midfielder scored 53 goals and added 10 assists last season, while being named to the All CSAC First Team. Seniors Alexis Willey and Jennifer Silvestri will be an integral part of the team. Willey totaled 45 points, netting 15 goals and assisting on 30 others. Silvestri scored 22 goals while adding three assists. Also keep an eye out for Sophomore Attacker Kelly Kryspin. Kryspin tallied 24 goals last season in her freshman campaign.

On defense the Pacers will rely on one senior and a pair of juniors. Alexis Boyle enters the season as the most experienced defenseman. She started in all eighteen games for the Pacers. Stephanie Naro and Mary Christine Vignola will be asked to play major minutes for the defense. Naro, like Boyle, started every game a season ago. Vignola started 15 games last season. The goalie position should also be strong for the Pacers. Senior Katie Sullivan enters this season with over 500 career saves. Sullivan finished last season ranked fifth in the nation in saves with 218 and a conference best .514 save percentage which ranked fifteenth nationally. “Our goal like any team is to win the CSAC Championship. We made the playoffs last year and won on the road which gave us a ton of confidence. But this year we want to play a playoff game at home which means we have to finish as one of the top four teams in the conference,” said Naro. And if the Pacers are able to obtain their goal of finishing fourth or better in the conference, what an improvement that would be.