Orange Officially Begins Preparations for 2009 Season
1/8/2009 4:26:20 PM | Women's Lacrosse
The Syracuse women's lacrosse squad held its first practice session of 2009 today in the Carrier Dome. The Orange returns nine starters and 18 letterwinners from last year's team that recorded the most successful season in the program's history.
"I thought we looked good," said senior captain Bridget Looney. "We're excited to back. We've all been working hard over the semester break. No we're ready to get started and show our stuff."
Syracuse won a school-record 18 games last season, won the BIG EAST regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the Final Four for the first time in school history in 2008. The Orange broke four NCAA single-season records on its way to leading the nation in scoring. Syracuse tallied 541 points, surpassing the previous record of 529 set by Northwestern in 2007. The Orange also broke the Wildcats’ record (361) for goals scored with 380 and established new standards for goals (18.01) and points (25.64) per game. In addition, Syracuse led the nation in scoring margin, averaging 8.25 more goals per game than its opponents.
The Orange returns five of its top six scorers, including senior Katie Rowan, the nation's leading scorer a year ago. Rowan enters the 2009 season already atop Syracuse's all-time leader list in points (284), goals (178) and assists (106).
Rowan certainly isn't the Orange's only offensive weapon. Junior Christina Dove set a single-season school record with 75 goals last season, while junior Halley Quillinan netted a career-best 63 goals. In addition, senior Megan Mosenson scored a career-high 43 goals to go along with 19 assists, which ranked third on the team.
The defense will be anchored by junior Lindsay Rogers and sophomore Liz Hogan. Rogers earned the Defensive Player of the Year award and earned second-team All-America honors. Hogan started every game in goal for the Orange last season and recorded a 8.14 goals against average in her rookie campaign. She was named to the All-BIG EAST First Team and the All-Northeast Region First Team. The defense will be helped by the return of Looney, who missed most of last season with a knee injury.
Syracuse opens the season on February 15 when it hosts LeMoyne at Noon in the Carrier Dome.
