By Braedan Shea
@braedan_shea
As the Springfield College women’s lacrosse team made its way off MacDowell Field in Babson Park, Mass., after once again falling to Babson College in the NEWMAC playoffs, head coach Jenn Thomas was obviously disappointed.
It wasn’t quite the storybook ending Thomas was hoping for: leading her alma mater to a conference championship victory in her first season at the helm, just a few years removed from battling a life-threatening case of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
But with that loss behind her, and with the beginning of her second season on the horizon, Thomas and the Pride have a newfound confidence powering them for a revenge season.
“We have a very, very big chip on our shoulder on how last season ended,” Thomas said. “Coming into the season, it’s fuel to the fire. We’re really excited, but I think we’re definitely playing with that chip.”
Despite the loss of NEWMAC All-Conference First Team superstar Jade O’Connor, who shattered the single-season goals record with 67, to graduation, Thomas is excited to see how her new-and-improved diverse offense will perform.
While O’Connor’s talents were never in question, the fact that the Pride depended on her so much made Springfield very one-dimensional and easy to scout. By slowing O’Connor, who accounted for nearly a quarter of Springfield’s goals (67 of 264) and shots on goal (147 of 607), as well as a fifth of the team’s points (78 of 370), the Pride became easier to slow down. With more scoring options, and the return of two key players, Thomas believes that this season will be completely different.
“What’s unique about this team is we have a lot more offensive threats,” Thomas said. “We have a lot of players that have stepped up. We also have two players that we didn’t have last year, Lilly Vey, who tore her ACL last year, and then Lily Johnson, they’re back. It’s really been awesome to see them come to life.”
Vey, a junior attack, echoed Thomas’s comments on the depth of the offense.
“Now we’re really getting into being able to see everyone’s depth, not only just depending on Jade,” Vey said. “We’re able to see underclassmen and upperclassmen that weren’t really having the light shined on them that much, which is really awesome to see. I think our attack will just be more fluent having all of us into it, rather than depending on one person like we did in the past.”
Coming off an ACL tear after just five games last year, Vey is ecstatic to rejoin the program. Although surgery in the summer prevented her from playing in the team’s fall season, Vey is becoming comfortable again on the field.
While winning the NEWMAC championship is one of Vey’s team goals for the season, getting back to playing carefree is what she aspires to get out of the season the most.
“I just want to be back playing lacrosse and having fun doing it,” Vey said. “I don’t want to be afraid of getting hurt again. I just want to go out there and have fun, and not play as scared. Coming back from an injury like I had, you can lose a lot of confidence. I feel like I’m starting to gain it back slowly, but it’s definitely going to be a hard obstacle to get over right now.”
The 2024 NEWMAC Women’s Lacrosse Preseason Coaches Poll has the Pride ranked third in the conference, a significant drop from the top position last year. Although some of the credit can be attributed to Springfield’s early exit in the playoffs last season, as well as the loss of O’Connor, another key factor has been the departure of defensive anchor Gianna Scialdone to graduation.
Scialdone had an immaculate 2023 season that rivaled her 2022 NEWMAC Defensive Athlete of the Year campaign, when she had 86 draw controls (fourth on the campus single-season records), was the only defender to start all 19 games and joined O’Connor on the All-Conference First Team. Like O’Connor, Scialdone’s shoes are going to be very hard to fill, but several promising underclassmen, such as Izzy Lalancette, are ready to step up.
“Izzy Lalancette is a freshman from Agawam, and she’s really really crushing it right now,” Thomas said. “You can just tell that she really worked hard this winter break so just come out and be strong. We’re excited because that’s going to bring us to the next level.”
With strong leadership coming from her captains – graduate student Arielle Johnson and seniors Hannah Hibbert and Maddie Roy – Thomas believes Springfield can get back to the top of the conference. But the path won’t be easy.
“I love that we’re ranked third, I think that’s the best place ever to be,” Thomas said. “We’re going to surprise a lot of teams, but I also know that we have a lot of work to do. That’s what’s exciting. We have great leadership this year that I think is going to really guide us throughout this whole season and bring us that Springfield standard.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics