{"id":59493,"date":"2012-04-30T08:09:48","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T12:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=59493"},"modified":"2012-05-04T09:57:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T13:57:27","slug":"lacrosse-completes-third-straight-winning-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/04\/lacrosse-completes-third-straight-winning-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Lacrosse Completes Third Straight Winning Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Second-year<\/a>
Second-year head coach Katie Woods, center, with members of the lacrosse team. The team had a winning season for the third consecutive year. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lacrosse head coach Katie Woods is feeling good about the progress her team has made in 2012.<\/p>\n

The Huskies got off to a 6-1 start with its out-of-conference schedule, before taking on the challenging Big East matchups \u2013 which included three nationally-ranked teams, and ended the season with a winning record for the third consecutive year (10-6), a first for the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of progress,\u201d Woods says. \u201cThe first year is the honeymoon year; everyone\u2019s excited. Now there has been a little more expected. Some people have stepped up really well. Some people are still sorting things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kiersten<\/a>
Kiersten Tupper '12 (ED) looks to pass the ball during the Huskies' win over Fairfield earlier this season. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seniors M.E. Lapham \u201912 (CLAS), a first team Big East selection last season, and Kiersten Tupper \u201912 (ED) led the attack for the Huskies, with support from second-year midfielder Lauren Kahn \u201915 (CLAS). The three combined for 146 points.<\/p>\n

Woods says the early part of the Big East schedule proved bumpy when the Huskies opened against No. 2 Syracuse with a 20-8 loss, followed by two more losses at Georgetown and at Rutgers. The team rebounded by winning three of its next four games, including picking up two conference wins at Cincinnati and at Louisville.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first Big East game against Syracuse was really difficult. We were really fired up, but they\u2019re one of the top teams in the country. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they make a run for the national championship,\u201d says Woods. \u201cThat was difficult for us to rebound from. But we\u2019ve worked hard. We\u2019re coming off a good road weekend with Cincinnati and Louisville. Winning that game at Louisville was a full team effort. It was awesome to have the game on the line, make a lot of adjustments, and at the end of it the team was backing each other up. We took care of the ball at the end when it mattered. That is the way we want to feel after every win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"M.E.<\/a>
M.E. Lapham '12 (CLAS) was one of the leading scorers for the Huskies lacrosse team this season. (Steve Slade '89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To continue the growth of the lacrosse program, Woods says it will be important to add more challenging out-of-conference games before the start of the Big East, which this season included four nationally-ranked teams (Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Loyola) and six teams with a high RPI, the formula that rates teams by strength of schedule and how a team performs against its schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were several games that were really tight for us early in the season that helped prepare us for the Big East. Some weren\u2019t,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d like to have a harder non-conference schedule for us in the future so we are ready for our conference, which is really competitive and it\u2019s going to stay that way. The more prepared we can be, the better we\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s class of juniors and sophomores will begin to assume the team\u2019s leadership next season, helping to guide this year\u2019s freshmen and the talented crop of new arrivals in the fall.<\/p>\n

Says Woods: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have youth. We\u2019re going to ask a lot more of our upperclassmen who have been role players. A lot of our players\u2019 roles are going to change, but it\u2019s kind of interesting and exciting to see who steps up. We\u2019re still going to have the expectations that we want to compete as hard as we can and get to the Big East tournament and compete for a title. I know for a fact, we\u2019re going to be quite young, which is exciting. But we\u2019re going to have a lot of youthful mistakes that are going to happen. It\u2019s going to be interesting to see who steps up into roles and positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahn is one of the student-athletes Woods expects to break from the pack of talented underclassmen. \u201cWhenever she decides she wants to go, she\u2019s going to take over. She just has to make that decision. We talk about that all the time and she understands it,\u201d Woods says.<\/p>\n

Midfielder Jordan Christopher \u201913 (CLAS) is working on improving her offensive game, which Woods says will progress as she gains more confidence in her game. On the defensive end, the coach is looking toward more contributions from Siobhan Wilcox \u201915 (NUR), Kacie Lewis \u201913(CLAS), and Kaitlyn Aldrich \u201915 (CLAS) to help solidify the core of defense.<\/p>\n

The coaching staff is also continuing to progress as a unit. Woods added two new assistant coaches this season \u2013 Anne Harrington, a former assistant at Dickinson College who also brings international playing experience to her resume, and Chelsea Gamble, a former captain at George Mason University and 2011 IWLCA\/Under Armour North\/South Senior All Star.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a transition period [with coaches],\u201d Woods says. \u201cWe\u2019re on the same page. I feel we balance each other really well. We have the same core values, which helps drive us with what we\u2019re trying to do with program. It\u2019s been great, really fun, but it takes time to build your own culture. You forget that when you\u2019ve been someplace for several years. That is the one thing we are working on every day at practice, lifting weights and games. We are still working to change the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Head coach Katie Woods sees progress in her second season leading the lacrosse team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":59500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-59493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 16:15:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59493"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59718,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59493\/revisions\/59718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/59500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59493"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=59493"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=59493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}