Eastern picked for fourth in MAC women's preseason poll; Elliott (Upper Darby) leads Widener (7th)

Phillylacrosse.com. Posted 2/27/10

Eastern was picked for fourth, Widener seventh, Alvernia 10^th and Arcadia 11^th in the Middle Atlantic Conference Women’s Lacrosse Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Eastern (11-7 overall in 2009) is led by junior attack Grace Griffith, who was second on the team in goals with 56 last year.

Widener (8-9, 4-7 MAC) has a lot to look forward to, returning eight starters on a team which just missed the conference tournament on the final week of last season.

One of those starters is senior attacker/midfielder Jackie Elliott (Upper Darby, who has been named second team All-MAC each of the last two years. She took the conference by storm last season, ending second with a school-record 71 goals, tied for third with 85 points and tied for fifth with three game-winning goals.

Elliott finished eighth in the country with 4.73 goals per game, 24th in goals and 36 in points. Her 125 career goals are sixth in school history and her 157 points are seventh.

Also looking to provide scoring punch is junior attacker Mellany Broomall, who ended second on the squad last season with 31 goals and second with 42 points. Attacker/midfielder Jen Harnden was fourth on the team with 40 points and fellow junior Linda Salcedo (Archbishop Prendergast) went 5-3 in net.

Elizabethtown, which lost in last year’s conference final, was picked to win the league with defending champion Messiah tabbed second. FDU-Florham, which played in the ECAC South Tournament final last year, was selected third.

Widener opens its season today at home against Immaculata, beginning at 3:00 pm at Leslie C. Quick Jr. Stadium.

Alvernia burst out of the gates last season winning its first six games and setting a record for consecutive wins to open a season. The Crusaders cooled considerably when they entered the conference schedule finishing the season 8-9, but they were recognized by laxpower.com as having a top five improvement from 2008 when they finished 2-13.

Alvernia posted a 2-9 conference record last season with wins over King’s and Misericordia. At season’s end the Crusaders were tied with Arcadia University for 10th in the conference.

Fifth-year head coach Kelly McCloskey returns her top six scoring options from last season led by junior Felicia Sippel (St. Hubert) who tallied a single-season record 65 goals last year. Sophomore Sarah George (Bayard Rustin) also broke the previous single-season goals mark (54, McKenna Shafer) and established a freshman mark at 55 goals. George also handed out a team-best and school-record 21 assists.

The rest of the top six scorers from last season are Sam Landis (23 goals, 11 assists) Heather Coppola (26 goals, four assists), Megan Corrigan (Boyertown, 21 goals, nine assists) and Tara Walls (19 goals, five assists).

Sophomore goalie Jenn Czarnecki (St. Hubert) returns for the Crusaders.

Middle Atlantic Conference Women’s Lacrosse Preseason Coaches’ Poll

1. Elizabethtown 152 pts. (7)

2. Messiah 151 pts. (6)

3. FDU-Florham 130 pts.

4. Eastern 122 pts.

5. Lycoming 119 pts.

6. Manhattanville 92 pts.

7. Widener 89 pts.

8. Misericordia 76 pts.

9. Wilkes 69 pts.

10. Alvernia 62 pts.