2011 Schedule

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse team has been picked to finish 10th in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference standings this season, as announced in the preseason coaches poll released Thursday by the league office.

Much like men's and women's soccer in the fall, the PSAC will switch to a single division format for lacrosse this spring, with each team playing once throughout the year. The top six teams will advance to the conference playoffs.

Defending PSAC Champion Lock Haven topped the coaches poll, receiving eight first-place votes. West Chester, which lost the national championship game to Adelphi last season, slots in at second with the remaining four first-place votes.

Mercyhurst and Gannon rank third and fourth, followed by Bloomsburg and Shippensburg closing out the fifth and sixth positions. According to the coaches, the teams that will be on the outside looking into the playoff picture will be East Stroudsburg, which ranked seventh, Indiana, Millersville, Slippery Rock, Edinboro and Kutztown.

The top four teams in the coaches poll are all nationally-ranked in the top 10 currently, with Lock Haven at No. 3, West Chester at No. 5, Mercyhurst at No. 6 and Gannon at No. 9.

Slippery Rock will enter the season with high hopes of recording the most successful season in Slippery Rock history. The team finished the 2010 campaign with a 7-10 overall record, providing the most wins since the program returned to the Division II level in 2007. It was just the sixth-time in school history that a team reached seven wins.

Emily Hopkins is back for her fourth season as the head coach of the program. She will be joined this year by first-year assistant coach Lindsay Rentel.

“We had another solid recruiting class this year and our veterans now have one more year under their belts,” said Hopkins. “We're not going to focus too much on the preseason poll. We want to get out to a good start on spring break and build throughout the season.”

Headlining the list of returning players will be senior defensive standout Brianne Dishong and junior offensive standout Amy Halls. Both players have earned All-PSAC honors in each of the last two seasons, becoming the only Rock duo to accomplish that since the program returned in 2007.

Dishong is a legitimate All-America contender this season after becoming Slippery Rock's first All-Region player last year. She has improved her numbers in every season, leading up to her most productive year in 2010, when she recorded 44 ground balls and 27 caused turnovers, leading the team in both categories.

Halls has been the most storied goal scorer in Slippery Rock history through two seasons and she is poised to break the school's all-time scoring record early in the year. Through two seasons, she has tallied 108 goals, just four shy of the record of 112 set by April Ennis (1988-90). Last season Halls also improved her draw controls totals, leading the team with 51. She finished the year with 51 goals and 11 assists, 26 ground balls and 23 caused turnovers.

Counting Halls, Slippery Rock returns all 10 of its top scorers from last season. Second on that list is junior midfielder Casey Quinn, who scored 37 goals and handed out six assists last year. She also tied Dishong for the team lead in caused turnovers with 27.

Junior midfielder Emma VanDenburg started in all 17 games last year and finished third in scoring with 21 goals and a team-high 21 assists. Sophomore attack Ariel Knox scored 24 goals and handed out eight assists in her first collegiate campaign, while junior attack Samantha Eddy added 22 goals and 10 assists to go along with 34 draw controls.

Senior midfielder Katie Roof scored 13 goals and handed out nine assists, while also recording 31 ground balls and 24 draw controls. Junior attack Alexis Slutsky scored 12 goals and handed out seven assists and sophomore attack Dakota McCoy added seven goals and five assists to round out the double figure point scorers. Sophomore attack Hannah Bonfiglio and sophomore defender Jami Meirick each scored three goals in their first season to rank ninth and 10th in scoring.

In total, 10 everyday starters return to the field this season for The Rock. The only noticeable absence will be between the pipes, where SRU must replace Ashley Winkelspecht. Freshman goalie Kat Elkins will likely start the season in goal, while junior Danielle Gonzales and freshman Ariel Gilbert will push her.

The Rock also welcomes back two seniors on defense in Alison Rusnak and Olivia Lampenfeld, who will each be counted on to contribute minutes on the defensive side of the field this season.

Joining the senior trio on defense are sophomores Cassidy Schemm and Candice Mack, who both started in all 17 games as freshmen last year. Schemm picked up 26 draw controls, 20 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers. Mack recorded 29 ground balls and 16 caused turnovers.

Along with Elkins and Gilbert, seven other freshmen will join the squad this season. Included in that list are attack players Allison Richards and Morgan Pettit, midfielders Lauren Laubach, Brittany Jaillet and Kourtney Pike and defenders Lacey Allis and Kaitlyn Hafdell.

The Rock will open its 2011 season with two games in South Carolina over spring break. SRU will visit St. Andrews Presbyterian College March 9 and Converse College March 12 before returning home to host Gannon March 15.

The schedule features 17 regular season games, including eight home games. Highlighted home games include the April 2 match against Shepherd, which will be the team's Lax-4-Life game to raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention. The April 16 game against Bloomsburg will serve as Senior Day.

All home games and multiple away games will feature live statistics feeds and many home games will include free live audio broadcasts over the Internet. Check the schedule page linked above before each game for live coverage links.