With the return of seven players and the infusion of talented newcomers, the Binghamton University women’s lacrosse team is optimistic about its 2012 campaign.
Though the Bearcats will not have the scoring prowess of last year’s team after graduating both Beth Moore and Ali Castiglie, they will return senior attack Lis Zuern, who led team last year with 49 points, senior defender Lauren Lukefahr, and juniors attack Kimberly McGeever and midfielder Katherine Hunsberger, who netted 10 and eight goals respectively.
BU head coach Tony Zostant said he believes that the departure of Moore and Castiglie will pave the way for Zuern, McGeever and Hunsberger to have productive seasons.
“[Beth and Ali] were key pieces,” Zostant said at the team’s media day last week. “They were points leaders for us and teams tend to focus on them a little bit. This year, we’re spreading the wealth around. We think that we can have three or four, maybe five people that can pick up that scoring piece. We have Lis Zuern coming back [who had almost] 50 points last year. We’ve got junior Kim McGeever who can step up for us and Katherine Hunsberger can step up in the midfield. I think she can score points as well and be a big point producer for us.”
This year’s roster will include eight freshmen, but they will be expected to contribute significantly to a Binghamton offense that averaged only 9.24 goals per game as a team and 11.47 points per game individually — the worst offensive statistics in the America East.
With the new emphasis on “spreading the wealth” and relentless intensity in riding situations, Zostant said he is hopeful that these adjustments will lead to more scoring opportunities.
“We’re asking them to attack the ride a little bit more,” he said. “We’ve thrown in a bit of a zone ride, in the past we haven’t done that. We asked the attack to ride a little bit more physical which is putting a little bit more demand on them and just try to sell the ride a little bit better. Try to get it into them that if they ride harder, they get the ball back and shoot more and, the more shots they get, the more points they get.”
Lukefahr, who, along with Zuern, was present at media day, said that team cohesion would be just as instrumental for success in 2012.
“From a defensive standpoint, there were times last year the other team would go on [a] five-goal run,” she said. “This year I think we have the positivity and trust in each other on D. If they score two goals, we’re still up. We’re not going to give up, we’re not going to let go and I think that what’s going to be the difference is just staying positive, staying together and not just falling apart under the pressure.”
The Bearcats finished with a 4-13 record and tied for fifth place in the AE standings last season. The 2012 AE preseason poll has BU projected to finish last again. But the ranking did not temper the enthusiasm of the coaches and players.
“Every year we’re projected to finish last,” Zostant said. “We had a good season last year. Quite honestly I think if we won the conference this year, we would be picked last next year. So that’s just the way it is. Until we win some games, we’re always going to be picked last. So that doesn’t bother us at all.”
According to Zuern, the Bearcats’ last-place ranking in the poll, if anything, is “great motivation.”
“You look at that and we’ll probably hang it up in the locker room so we can look at it every single day so we can use that and turn it around,” she said. “Even though we’re ranked last, we know that going out there teams aren’t going to take us lightly as much as you would think because we only lost to many of these teams by one. Everyone is out for us. However, whoever we beat is going to be an upset which is awesome.”
BU is scheduled to begin the regular season at home against St. Francis University at noon on Feb. 26. It will be the first of seven non-conference games for the Bearcats until they open conference play against University of New Hampshire on March 24.