Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/9/18
From Press Release
The 2018 La Salle women’s lacrosse season kicks off today when the Explorers host Fresno State at 4:00 PM at McCarthy Stadium.
Head coach Candace Bossell (Haverford High) returns for her tenth season with the Explorers. Bossell will be flanked by returning assistant coach Allyson Heavens (Garnet Valley) and also Samantha Nolan, who joined the team over the offseason. Nolan will make her assistant coaching debut after a five-year playing career at UMBC where she was the team captain and led her squad to an 11-win season.
Bossell is particularly excited about this team’s intensity.
“We’re fast, we’re strong, we’re competitive,” she raved following one of the team’s preseason practices. “We want to win and we go out every day and give it 100 percent.”
A year ago, the team finished with seven wins and an appearance in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. This year, the team looks to build a stronger chemistry.
“You can’t really tell who is a senior and who is a freshman,” said Rachel Ceplo (Delran-NJ), one of the team’s captains. “I think having that in the back of our pocket is a huge advantage.”
Ceplo scored 13 goals last season. She also picked up 27 ground balls and recorded 17 draw controls.
“Our goal as a team is to get better every day,” said Courtney Shoults. “We’ve been practicing together since August.”
Last season, Shoults finished second on the team in caused turnovers (16) and third in ground balls (31).
This year’s team includes a relatively high amount of underclassmen, which fifth year senior Abbey Meehan says the team has been working on getting up to speed so far this preseason.
“We’ve been doing a lot of game situations in practice,” she said. “There’s a big jump between high school and Division I.”
The team’s top returning goal scorer from a year ago is Brittany Edwards (Great Valley). The Malvern native scored 28 goals in 18 games last season. She also added eight assists and 15 ground balls.
“We’re just trying to continue the culture of our team and just be as successful as we can,” said Edwards.
The season will mark the first on the stadium’s new turf that was installed last summer. So far, members of the team have expressed happiness with the quality of the new playing surface.
The Explorers play four of their first five games at home. Atlantic 10 play begins on March 29 at Davidson. After about a month of conference play, the A-10 Championships take place at Robins Stadium in the University of Richmond from May 3 to May 8.