Women's lacross wants strong finish

Norwich University women's lacrosse has one main goal in mind: To bring home another GNAC championship.

So far this season, the Lady Cadets have battled back and forth between wins and losses. With just a few more games to go they hope to finish strong. 

Beth Van Parys, head coach of the Norwich women's lacrosse team, said, "If you look at the play it is not just one person contributing to the team. It's the whole team in general, from the keeper all the way down to the attack."

The team determined from its first meeting of the year that its goal was to win the GNAC championship, according to Van Parys. 

"I said to the team (that) for us to be champs again we need to focus on the teams in our conference and play hard every game," she said.
In order to make it back to the GNAC championship, the team must "build off the success we had in the past," Van Parys said.

Along with winning another championship, the team is focused on rebuilding its skills and team chemistry.

"Our goal this year is to jell together as a team and do a lot more system works and improve our defense," said Mollie Fitzpatrick, 19, a sophomore psychology major from Falmouth, Maine.

Halfway through a challenging season, the team is optimistic with its progress.

"This year we already accomplished one of our goals, which was (to) beat Emerson College.," said Maura Kee, 22, a senior criminal justice major from Tewksbury, Mass.
Yet not far from everyone's mind is "our other goal: maintain a winning season and work harder to get back to the GNAC championship," Kee said.

"Every player knows and has the same goal, which is a championship.  Even though in the beginning there were some players that didn't understand the concept," said Ally Allen, 23, a senior civil engineering major from Chelsea, Vt. "Talking and explaining our goal to the team (has helped us) come together as one.  Each player on the team has their eye on the prize: another championship."

Nicki Pickel, 21, a junior nursing major from Montpelier, Vt., said, "For us to be successful as a team, we have to keep playing even when we are anticipating a win. We still need to play our best out there; just because you know you're going to win does not mean you take the day off.  You play every day as if it were a championship game."

The Cadets are taking the season one game at a time in their quest for the championship, adapting their style of play to get the job done.

"When we know we are going up against a strong team we look at what they have and where they are strong," Fitzpatrick said. "When we went up against Emerson we knew they had one strong girl so we learned a whole new defense to stop her: We adapt to every game we play each week."

According to Kee, "We still come in day in and day out and keep in our mind that we have to work on improving our self and our game because we still have a long ways to go for a championship."

The team has three more home games followed by an away game at Worcester State to close out the season May 1.