A 12-6 record and a playoff berth in SJ1 in 2015 has the girl’s lacrosse program excited for what the 2016 campaign will bring. Girl’s lacrosse knows communication is key to the team’s success this year, which is why head coach Laura Curran has been hitting on it since day one of the preseason.
The Pirates enjoyed two lengthy win streaks last season, six and five games, en route to their 12 wins. A large part of that team graduated in June as girl’s lacrosse returns just four starters from the 2015 roster.
“A lot of these girls haven’t played with each other before,” Curran said. “We are taking little steps, setting small goals. We are looking to achieve small successes before we worry about bigger things.”
“The eight players who are starting right now who haven’t played a lot of varsity time are doing their best to adjust to their new roles. I have a freshman starting on defense who last year started on attack. They ask questions, they want to learn, they want to get better. I think they are doing as best as they can at this point to adjust to their roles and I think it will get better as time goes on.”
Curran and her staff have been focusing on defense during since the preseason began.
“Besides the basics of catching and throwing and communicating we’ve been focusing on defense. We only have four returning starters, so the girls back on defense, only one or two have been back there before,” Curran said. “The rest are from JV last year and got minimal time as varsity players.”
“We are working on our defense all over the field and communicating with each other; ‘I have your help’ or ‘I have your slide.’ We are also working on getting the girls confident with each other and learning to trust each other.”
Curran knows that her team might not be able to match an opponent’s ability offensively or defensively at times, but wants her team to control what can be controlled.
“Sometimes we can’t control our ability, but we can control our effort. The things we can control, our aggressiveness, we can really work on that before the season starts.”
For a second straight season girl’s lacrosse will open the season with Holy Cross.
“Our first game is going be tough. For whatever reason, no matter who we were playing, I would say ‘Pretend this is Holy Cross,’ because they were so fired up against them,” Curran said. “In the end, whether it is a win or loss, they tend to turn it on much more against Holy Cross than any other team. We will always start out with them if that’s what it takes.”
Curran explained what she is excited to see happen during the 2016 season:
“As a coach, I love the little things they do well. Whether it be running a play correctly or taking it left-handed and scoring left-handed, the little things in each game and seeing them be successful. When they work on something in practice and it is successful in a game, that to me just makes it so worthwhile.”
The Pirates open the season this afternoon at 3:45pm with a home game against Holy Cross. The Lancers swept the season series from the Pirates last year. Cinn City Sports will have coverage of the opener so be sure to follow on Twitter for live updates throughout the game.
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