Daily Archives: February 18, 2010

Armed with a cadre of experienced players and a newfound team atmosphere, UC Davis women’s lacrosse opens its 2010 season at home against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation leaguemate California this Saturday.

The start of the upcoming year stands in contrast to last year’s launch, when head coach Elaine Jones held very few known quantities. At that point, UC Davis had graduated two of the program’s all-time leading scorers plus its most prolific goalkeeper. In their place were 16 freshmen and sophomores, plus one transfer student.

This time around, Jones has a better idea of what her program can do. Last year’s sophomores, groomed since their arrival to form the program’s nucleus, have stepped into their roles as torch-bearers for UC Davis lacrosse as juniors in 2010. The three seniors continue to produce at high levels on both sides of the ball, while the freshmen and sophomores have made sizable forward steps heading into the upcoming season.

As it is, the team’s progress during 2009 became evident in the final weeks, highlighted by a 16-14 upset of Denver during the MPSF tournament. As such, the Aggies held strong against their various conference foes at the January 31 Cal Playday, which consists of a round robin of scrimmages.

“I never put too much stock in scrimmages because everyone is playing different combinations. But I would say we were pleased with our effort at the Cal Playday,” Jones said. “We looked much better than we did in the fall. Our freshmen settled down. We had people coming back who hadn’t really played last year, so it was up in the air as to who would contribute and where they would fit in. I think the improvement we’ve seen from fall to spring has been pretty good.”

Another improvement in the team has stemmed from a somewhat unusual choice: for the first time in her Aggie tenure, Jones has opted not to designate captains for the 2010 season. Such a maneuver seems like little more than a formality to the uninitiated, the veteran coach has seen the dividends.

“We’re taking more of a collective leadership approach, and I think it has made our team stronger,” said Jones. “Everyone has a role in helping out. We don’t have two people who we point to and say, `these are the leaders of the team.’ It doesn’t fall on two people.”

Instead, the leadership roles have been spread upon the entire team. Her student-athletes have taken an ownership in the team’s success, rather than relying on a few key individuals to shoulder the burden. According to Jones, the new atmosphere has yielded a more balanced team with strong team chemistry.

Helping this cause is a larger bank of talent from which Jones may draw. Among the seniors, midfielder Britt Farquharson quickly assimilated into the UC Davis program last year, leading the team in goals (46), shooting percentage (.561) and draw controls. The Mississauga, Ontario native was particularly effective down the stretch: after scoring just six goals in the first five games, she tallied 40 in the last 13. Farquharson’s four-goal, eight-draw control performance in the MPSF first-round upset of Denver helped earn her all-tournament honors.

The two players with the most Aggie experience coincidentally share the same name first name. Molly Lapolla completed her third season as a starter in 2009, posting career-high marks with 21 goals and 21 assists, while shooting .447 overall and .588 (10-for-17) on eight-meter opportunities. Co-captain Molly Peterson recorded 32 ground balls, 22 draw controls and 16 caused turnovers as a defensive wing. She also chipped in eight points (four goals, four assists) on the attacking end.

All eight members of the junior class have been starters at some point in their careers, with six who started at least 16 of the 18 games in 2009. Both returning goalkeepers are part of this group, as are two of last year’s top three scorers.

Attacker Christina Corsa tied a school record with 29 assists to go with 31-for-74 shooting, picking up where she left off after a fine freshman campaign. Midfielder Gina Hoffmire matched Corsa’s total of 31 goals to finish in a tie for second on the Aggie scoring rolls, while furnishing 22 ground balls and 24 draw controls. Lauren Boyle switched from attacker to join Peterson in the defensive third, starting all 18 games and delivering a team-high 41 ground balls. Rachael Martinez also took a sizable step forward in the program, starting every game and responding with 21 ground balls and a team-leading 17 steals.

Gina Hoffmire shot 31-for-70 with 24 draw controls as a sophomore in 2009. (Wayne Tilcock, Davis Enterprise)

Two more juniors, Alyssa Cranska and Kjersten Nordmeyer, enter their second year as the primary goalkeepers. Cranska started the majority of games, logging more than 800 minutes in 16 starts. Nonetheless, Nordmeyer earned her share of cage time, totalling 288 minutes in front of the net. Combined, the tandem stopped 159 shots during the 2009 season.

At 5-foot-10, midfielders Alyse Lasater and Laura Martin both provide a physical presence for UC Davis. Martin has scored eight goals with 14 ground balls in her career, while Lasater won 12 draw controls as a freshman in 2008 then tallied 16 ground balls last season.

However, despite a larger contingent of veteran players than in recent years, Coach Jones fields a sizable group of young student-athletes who will cut their lacrosse teeth in 2010. Even among the second-year players, only two – Laura Sunday and Vannessa Jamison – saw action in a majority of the games last year, and even their total on-field minutes were somewhat limited. Scoring threat Meghan Olmstead suffered a season-ending injury after just two games in 2009, while attacker Kristi Irgens was relegated to fall ball only. Both players earned a medical hardship waiver to preserve the year of eligibility. Hope Shiverick also was sidelined by injury for much of the 2009 campaign, making her collegiate debut in the final two weeks of the year.

Along with the eight freshmen, the sophomores will benefit from the team’s newfound environment in making the adjustment from the high school/club game to the faster and more complex collegiate game. “I want out freshmen and sophomores to listen and learn, without being afraid to speak up,” Jones said. “I think they get that. The sophomores are back and contributing. The freshmen are on their way to making the adjustment. They’re still learning, but we’ve seen a lot of positive things out of them.”

Bolstering the program and representing its future are eight freshmen who formed the National Letter of Intent signing class the previous year. Attacker Elizabeth Datino and Molly Carstensen both hail from Colorado, earned All-America honorable mention and played for the same Team 180 club. Anna Geissbuhler joins Martin as the team’s Ohio contingent. She scored 225 goals with a school-record 101 assists for her Worthington High School team, also garnering prep All-America honorable mention.

Stephanie Guercio is the Aggies’ Empire State representative, starring for both Connetquot High School and the Long Island Lacrosse club. From farther north along I-95 comes Tess Alekna of Dover-Sherborn High, just outside of Boston. The Tri-Valley All-Star scored 60 goals as a senior captain in 2009.

The first-year class also has three Californians, although one perhaps carries an asterisk next to that designation. Casey Bowles (Danville) and Natasha Markham (Orange County) are the true Golden State veterans. Bowles was an all-league pick for San Ramon Valley High and played club ball for Triple Threat, while Markham was an All-South Coast League pick for Tesoro High before spending her summers on the Element 5 roster. Hannah Mirza lists the North Bay town of Mill Valley as her hometown, but she prepped at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn. She earned team MVP and her second All-Founders League nod last year.

Building toward the future became a higher priority to UC Davis and its MPSF peers when it was announced that the conference was granted a shot at an automatic qualifier for the 16-team NCAA tournament. The winner of the MPSF will take on the Atlantic-10 Conference champion in a play-in game for the national championship, a new milestone for the seventh-year conference.

The signficance of this new step is not lost on Coach Jones, who is no stranger to the NCAA tournament. She played on four straight tournament teams at Virginia, including the national-champion 1991 squad. “We’ve worked hard to get to the point where we can get this recognition and get a bid to the NCAAs,” Jones said. “This is amazing for women’s lacrosse, our conference and the West coast in general. All of us would love to be that team. Stanford has had a stranglehold on it the last few years, but everyone is shooting for it.”

The Aggies open their season with a pair of home MPSF contests, starting with Saturday’s tilt with California. UC Davis is ranked fifth in the preseason conference poll after finishing 6-12 overall and 2-4 in MPSF contests last year. The Golden Bears, who received one first-place vote in the rankings, return two All-MPSF honorees: defender DennaFaye Herald and midfielder Alex Tickner.

Saturday’s season opener takes place at 1 p.m. at Aggie Stadium.