After big strides were made in 2024, Springfield College women’s lacrosse is set on competing for — and winning — the NEWMAC Championship in 2025.
The Pride went 10-7 in the 2023 season, under the direction of Jenn Thomas in her first season on the sidelines with Springfield. Improving to 14-3 in her second year was an impressive feat, but Thomas feels that the team has the talent to get over the recent playoff slump.
“The goal is to get back to the NEWMAC Championship game and to really prove it to ourselves this season that we can do it, but also to others,” Thomas said. “We’ve been close the last two years, but now, having more threats and more options, both offensively and defensively, I think that we’re going to get to that game, and even win it.”
Offensively, the Springfield unit this year is as stacked as anyone in the NEWMAC, and possibly in all of Division III. The 2024 team ranked top 35 in goals per game (15.1), along with their scoring margin (6.5), but the team is returning seven of its top eight scorers from the high-powered attack. The scoring was spread out amongst the entire offense, and Thomas believes that this year’s offense can improve even further.
“If someone isn’t producing as much as they should, let’s not think of it as a weakness,” Thomas said. “Let’s think of it as a strength for other players to step up. This year it’s even more exciting because we’re even seeing upperclassmen step up into these roles and producing a ton in practice. In a way, we have more offensive threats [than last year].”
Izzy Lalancette was the second highest goal-scorer for the Pride last year in her first season, and has high hopes for this year as well.
“If I can get my confidence up, that’s when I perform at the highest level,” Lalancette said. “I proved to myself last year that I can perform under pressure in certain situations.”
Springfield beat MIT in overtime last year in the regular season, but they would eventually fall to the Engineers in the NEWMAC semifinals 15-10.
Last week, the Pride were picked to finish third in the NEWMAC behind MIT and Babson, and mirroring last year’s schedule, Springfield will face the two powerhouses back-to-back on April 16 and 19.
Although the Pride fell short to both MIT and Babson last year, assistant coach Ellsa Peabody has faith in Springfield to progress and become the top team in the conference again.
On Feb. 5, Peabody was named the full-time assistant coach for the team after being a grad assistant last year. Peabody, along with Thomas, agree upon those games as the biggest test of their season.
“For the seniors, we’re graduating so many, and it’s their last chance to get that win over them,” Peabody said. “It’ll be really exciting leading up to those two games for this year. We’re always neck-and-neck with them.”
While the offense looks to be as potent as ever, the defensive unit has undergone one of its biggest upgrades in recent memory. With both of Springfield’s rostered goalies graduating last spring, Thomas recruited hard to find the program’s next keeper. And by early August, the program looked ready to enter the season with two promising first-years, Lindsay Hillemeir, who played at Farmington High in Farmington, Conn., and Cedar Conrad, from Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Mass.
A few weeks later, however, Thomas dipped into the transfer portal, landing one of her best transfers since standout Jade O’Connor came to Springfield from Longwood University in 2022 – Kate Laico.
Laico, a graduate, comes from Pace University, and was a member of the 2023 team that won the Division II National Championship, the first in its program’s history.
“All three of our goalies are feeding off each other, which is great,” Thomas said. “Kate is awesome. She’s a leader on and off the field, but having her insight is really important too.”
The roster of 28 last year has jumped to 35, largely in part to the addition of 13 first-year players. Thomas has high expectations for them, with some set to provide meaningful minutes for the Pride, especially midfielder Molly Forrest.
“Molly is going to do really well this year,” Thomas said. “If she continues to work on some things, she has so much potential with this team.”
Thomas is also excited for Liz Neri, Kristyn Vasselin and Lilly Vey to be breakout players for the Pride.
While Thomas wants to improve on her squad’s shot percentage, the Pride thrived in other categories such as having the least turnovers per game in the NEWMAC.
Of the dozen players that are graduating after this season, midfielder Abby Taylor emphasized the importance of her final season on Stagg field.
“Obviously we want a bookend season,” Taylor said, who played on Springfield’s last NEWMAC Championship team in 2022. “But really, I just want to enjoy and have fun with my incredible teammates. They’re amazing people, and I’m just so lucky to be at Springfield with them.”
Springfield opens up their season down the road against Western New England on Feb. 22.
Photo By David Hosmer