Tough opener for women's lacrosse

The women’s lacrosse team traveled to West Palm Beach and lost to SUNY Cortland 12-8 on Thursday, March 11. Head Coach Liz Monte was still satisfied with the result, considering this was a difficult opponent to start off the season, as the SUNY Cortland women’s lacrosse team is ranked 10th in their division. Single goalscorers for the lacrosse team include junior Rachel Hawley, senior Rachel Holztberg and senior Sarah Walker. Senior Samantha Krawitzsky scored multiple goals against SUNY Cortland. As goalkeepers, senior Stephanie Bristol made six saves and junior Cassie Glanton made one save. The squad has six new freshman faces this year, including Heidi Davies, Laura Giusto, Christina Montano, Adrienne Sopinski, Allana Tievsky and Tess Townsend.Monte is also new to UR women’s lacrosse. Before coming to coach the women’s lacrosse team this year, Monte coached SUNY Geneseo into the ECAC Women’s Lacrosse Championships and the SUNY Athletic Conference Championships in 2002, as well as the SUNYAC Championships in 2003. She received the SUNYAC Women’s Lacrosse Coach of the Year award in 2002. During playing career from 1996-2000, she was on the U.S. Women’s National Lacrosse Team, and also played for the University of Maryland when they captured the NCAA Division I national championship.Monte believes the Yellowjackets are a very capable team with growth potential, though they will have a very competitive schedule this season. She notes some strengths of the team as having a strong defense, and good athletes and shooters. In the future, the team will focus on fine-tuning and putting together their offense.In their next game, the women’s lacrosse team will play at SUNY Brockport at 4 p.m. on March 23.Keller can be reached at rkeller@campustimes.org.