Addy Pittenger, Arts & Life Editor Emeritus–
The recent warm weather in Granville, OH, has given the Denison Women’s Lacrosse team the perfect opportunity to prepare for their upcoming season. With the recent addition of the brand new Kienzle-Hylbert Stadium, the team could not be more excited to kick off their season and make their debut on the new field.
With practices almost every day since the end of last semester, seniors Ashley Viglione ‘24, Josie Lucchesi ‘24, and Maddie Morrell ‘24 presented an overview of what is to be expected in their upcoming last semester on the women’s lacrosse team.
The team’s month of preseason has focused a lot on new plays and smaller group work. With next week’s scrimmage coming up soon, a change of pace in practice intensity has led to a stronger overall team for the season. As a senior captain, Morrell has taken on the responsibility of leading the team to success by driving everyone to become more involved and help each other out throughout practices.
“To be that voice in between the girls and the coaches, it’s been pretty easy. The whole team is super easy to work with, and everyone loves being there,” Morrell said.
With many of the juniors being on their study abroad semesters, this meant that throughout the fall semester and the beginning of this spring semester, the freshmen really played a big role in allowing the team to become closer together before the start of the season.
“The fundamentals are looking good, but now we are focusing on team chemistry,” Lucchesi said.
All the time the team spends together makes them stronger as a cohesive unit.
“Being seniors now, it is definitely different for us because of the age gap, but we still like to take [the freshmen] under our wing and introduce them to the campus, our friends, and the rest of our team… They have brought so much talent to the team,” Vigilone added.
For the team, the new lacrosse field has been a great addition. With up-to-date equipment and style, it has acted as both a fresh start and a major convenience. Before the new field, the women’s and men’s teams shared the old lacrosse field with alternating practice times, but the new field made it so both teams did not have to practice at later hours.
“The field—it makes us feel empowered,” Morrell said, “It shows all of the work we have put in throughout the years and how far we have gone in tournaments. Seeing how our work has paid off and that we do have that recognition from the school to have our own field is just an amazing feeling.”
Morrell, Lucchesi, and Viglione are all in their last semester. They all shared how it has been a rather bittersweet experience going through their last semester. In the fall season, athletes get to have a semester just to be a student, whereas in the spring season, they leave their sports and school behind simultaneously.
It’s going to be quite difficult, especially toward the end of the semester,” Viglione said, “It honestly hasn’t hit me yet, but I know I’ll miss [Denison] a lot, and I’ll obviously miss lacrosse.”
“It will definitely be hard having everything come to a close at the same time, especially because we are usually here a couple of weeks after everyone leaves graduation due to tournaments. I don’t know if that will help [with the feeling] or make it worse, but we’re learning as we go,” Morrell said.
“It’s definitely weird [entering my last season],” Lucchesi said, “I sometimes envy the fall sports… to be able to have that adjustment experience to life without their sport, but I am very grateful for the fact that I still have a semester left to play the sport I love.
Kenyon College is the team’s biggest rival, so their game against them is their main upcoming highlight. Although they do not play Kenyon until April 20th, Denison’s women’s lacrosse will hold their first game against Gettysburg College on February 27th. The team is thrilled and excited to enter another engaging season and hopes that the Denison community will come out to watch and support the team and its seniors throughout the semester.