Women’s lacrosse prepares to lax to the max

Sophia Belletti, Staff Writer

The wait is almost over: VCU women’s lacrosse is soon to have their moment.

As the team prepares for its debut Division 1 schedule, the roster currently has 23 players; two transfer players, two players were selected from the club team and 19 recruits. Seven players are freshmen and 14 are redshirt freshmen.

During summer 2013, Jen O’Brien was hired as head coach. O’Brien spent the last few years leading up to this season working with the, “then club team,” and recruiting players.

O’Brien said the absence of upperclassmen was a big challenge for the team and coaching staff.

“Just getting them from the locker room to the field, and things like that, you really take for granted,” O’Brien said. “Showing freshman it’s normal to go through tough times, when you have juniors and seniors to look up to and say they’re made it through three or four tough years and they’re still here gives you that much more incentive to stick around.”

One of the players O’Brien looks to fulfill the role as a leader is redshirt freshman Sky Hyatt. The midfielder is a member of the first-ever signing class for VCU.

“The absence of upperclassmen is noticeable, there’s not that intimidation factor,” Hyatt said. “We’re all kind of on the same page and I think it helps with our chemistry. But at the same time, sometimes we need that upperclassmen to say ‘hey, get it together.’ Ultimately I think it feeds into how we work together on and off the field.”

The opportunity to make history and be apart of a legacy attracted a lot of players. Hyatt said there aren’t many opportunities in life when you have the opportunity to build history and be known for something. (Where did she say this?)

Freshman attack Molly Barcikowski is from the same county as O’Brien and said she was familiar with her coaching. When the Maryland native found out O’Brien was initiating the program at VCU, she was immediately interested.
“I think it’s an awesome opportunity to set the standards for our team and the whole VCU program,” said Barcikowski. “That’s exciting to me that it’s my responsibility to set the standards for now and years to come.

Before O’Brien was hired at VCU, she spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins University. In charge of the offense, she helped JHU rank in the T-40 nationally in goals per game during her tenure as a Blue Jay. Along the way, JHU racked up 43 wins in the competitive American Lacrosse Conference.

The Eldersburg, Maryland native had an impressive four-year playing career at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she was a four-year starter, two-time captain and earned Second Team All-America East honors twice. She finished her career with 86 goals and 56 assists for 142 points and as a senior, led the team in assists (18) and points (44). Her 56 assists ranked fourth in school history.

“I definitely learned a lot at my time at Hopkins,” O’Brien said. “I try to demonstrate everyday that we have really high expectations but we’re still going to love and support and develop these girls because our ultimate goal is the produce really confident women when they leave.”

As one can imagine, starting a new division I program from practically nothing comes with some challenges.

“(Us coaches are) looking for them to acclimate to the college game as quickly as they can,” O’Brien said. “None of them have played a Division 1 game and I think that’s going to be their biggest challenge. Just facing an opponent, whether we’re down by a couple goals or they’re not having a great game but still bring that leadership to the field.”

The coaches and players don’t see the birth of the program as a disadvantage, but as an advantage. The goal for the season is to make it to the conference tournament — and win.

“We think with people not knowing much about us and our girls having something to prove, they’re going to go out there and try to show we are equal to those teams that are continuing to show up in the conference tournament,” O’Brien said. “They’re kind of naive in a way. They don’t see them as this team has won the conference six years in a row, they just see it as UMass. They’re not intimidated by anyone really which gives us a leg up.”
The inaugural women’s lacrosse season begins Feb. 14. at noon against Gardner-Webb University at Cary Street Field.


Staff Writer, Sophia Belletti

Sophia Belletti, Photo by Brooke MarshSophia is a sophomore print/online journalism major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. She enjoys writing about current events and sports and hopes to one day be a sports reporter, covering soccer, basketball and baseball. You can usually find Sophia drinking way too much coffee and laughing at her own jokes. // Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

bellettisr@commonwealthtimes.org

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