Emma Woods
Contributing Writer
This weekend kicked off the men’s lacrosse season. The Scots played in Detroit against Albion College and won 14-10. This was a great opener for what looks to be an exciting season for the Scots.
They lost a lot of key seniors after last season such as leading scorer Tom Herold and strong defenseman Sean Hohan, but head coach P.J. Kavanagh is confident in the abilities of the younger players to step up and fill those roles this season. “The development of our younger players last spring and this fall has helped us to be ready for this year,” said Kavanagh.
Last season the men finished with a record of 9-7 overall and 3-5 in conference. This season, Kavanagh is looking to improve. “We did not make the conference playoffs, which was a significant disappointment,” said Kavanagh. “However, we developed steadily through the year and this past fall, so we are moving forward positively with our new style of play.” This new style is fast and deliberate. Kavanagh said, “If we take high-volume, high-quality shots when intelligently pushing transition, we’re going to create great opportunities” (Wooster Athletics).
Senior captain and standout goal keeper Aaron Levy is optimistic about the coming season. “We look this season to be an up-tempo, physical team that takes pride in winning ground balls and pushing transition,” said Levy. When asked about the recent season opener against Albion, Levy stated, “It was a good showing, especially for our offense. Matt Parmelee [’17] had four goals, Sam Kuhn [’18], Nate Weltman [’16] and Ian Brim [’18] had three goals apiece. And CJ Polak [’17], our short stick defensive midfielder, was perhaps our defensive standout player after running almost the entire game and scoring a goal as well. I had nine saves and we were able to clear the ball 16 out of 17 times.”
The team has their second game at home this Saturday against John Carroll University at 1 p.m. Last year, the Scots defeated John Carroll 11-10, and the team is ready to take them on again.
The women’s lacrosse season hasn’t officially begun but the women are working hard to build on a successful season a year ago.
Last season, the Scots’ record was an impressive 13-4 overall and 7-1 in conference. The women reached the conference tournament and had a season-high winning streak of 12 games. They are looking to increase their wins this coming season and hopefully make it to the finals, which just barely eluded them last year.
While the women have not played their first game, the team has been working hard, practicing outside in rain, snow and sun.
“We have been focusing on multiple facets of the game,” said head coach Elizabeth Ford. “We have spent a good amount of time on implementing some attacks and defenses. Outside of that we are looking at other parts of the game — the ride, clears and ball movement. We do hope to ride the wave of last season and be able to put ourselves in a position for the top four.”
They took a hit this year losing five seniors from last season. The team is now a majority underclassman, but midfielder Ellie Hudson-Heck ’16 is not worried. “Losing five seniors is a lot, but we have underclassman who are ready to step up and take over those roles,” said Hudson-Heck. “I have a tremendous amount of confidence in our team this year.”
Some players to watch are attacker Abby Szlachta ’16 who had 34 goals last season, defenseman Wynn Boehmcke ’17, who won 50 ground balls, attacker Helena Enders ’18, who led the first years last year in goals scored at 23 and Hudson-Heck, who led the team in both shots on goal at 83, goals scored at 55 and ground balls at 52.
The women’s first game is at home against Division II Walsh Univeristy on Wednesday, March 2 at 5 p.m.