Coming off of its best season since the program joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, the Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team is looking to surpass its 2009 records.
In a season where the team secured its first-ever ACC victory against Boston College and finished with seven victories, the Hokies still have a lot they would like to build on.
“I think that last year was a really great building block for this team, and considering we only lost two players, we have a lot of girls that are ready to go who learned from last year,” said junior co-captain Allie Emala.
Tech only lost two players from last year’s squad, although they were the team’s leading scorer, Rachel Culp, and the team’s reliable goalkeeper, Kari Morrison.
“We’ve really been working on our conditioning like never before,” said captain and lone senior Jacquelyn Duggins. “That’s probably the biggest thing right now. The ACC is the hardest conference in (women’s) lacrosse, and we have to translate being mentally tough while training now to being mentally tough when we’re down one with a minute left against Carolina.”
Historically, the Hokies have not fared well against their tough ACC opponents, having only won one ACC game to date. This year, Maryland is ranked No.2, North Carolina is No. 4, Duke is No. 5, and Virginia rounds out the top 10 at No. 10.
“We’re going to beat Boston College again, and then also, our big goal is to get two ACC wins,” Emala said. “I think this is also a year where we have a lot more depth than we’ve had in the past. I think the junior and sophomore classes are going to make a big difference.”
Despite having broad season goals, both captains agreed that the overall team focus was going to be on a game-by-game basis.
“We have definitely decided as a team to take things more game-by-game and not to look too far into the future,” Emala said. “Last year, I think we questioned ourselves a little bit — is this team going to be good? Are they not? It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re going to go out there from the beginning determined to win, and that’s the mindset that we’ve really displayed this year, and I think it’s really starting to show in how we play and practice.”
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 12 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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