(Photo: Jack Harris)
The inaugural season of the ASU women’s lacrosse program starts up on Friday with the Sun Devils playing at Kennesaw State before heading to Stetson on Sunday. Under the leadership of coach Courtney Martinez Connor, ASU has a lot of work to do in its debut season.
The Sun Devils will start the year playing six non-conference games (five of those on the road) before playing the other five Pac-12 schools with women’s lacrosse programs each twice, both home and away.
Martinez Connor is excited to finally start playing after an 18-month wait since arriving on campus.
“I think it’s a great year for us to be starting (the) Pac-12 inaugural season,” she said. “It’s tremendous for our players that were here last year, who came and believed in this program.”
With this being the first season ever for the Sun Devil women, everything that happens turns into a record. The first goal, first win, first loss – everything they do will go down in the history books.
“We have a lot of girls on this team who are willing to buy in and just do everything they can for their team,” junior co-captain Rachel Gregory said. “We have a lot of girls who work super hard every day so it’s not hard to work together.”
With such a new team, the past two years for Martinez Connor were spent working hard to recruit young talent. Thirty-three out of the 40 girls on the roster are underclassmen, leaving a lot of room for improvement in the future this year.
“Everyone has been working so hard in the fall and even if I didn’t expect them to come out guns blazing they did,” fellow junior co-captain Kerri Clayton said. “I’m excited to see what our (young) midfielders are going to do.”
Both captains had stated that it was not hard for the team to work well together. During a Tuesday practice, the girls seem to be very close with one another. Gregory and Clayton even began finishing each other’s sentences during an interview afterward.
Even so, the Sun Devils are ready to start the season and are looking forward to the obstacles ahead of them. The girls are looking to make a statement this weekend and pull out to wins on the trip to the east coast.
“Knowing that we can compete with anyone and not playing down to anyone’s level. Coming out hard, just going at it and at the end of 60 minutes have more goals than the other team.” Clayton said.
Added Gregory: “No regrets.”
THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES
Friday: ASU at Kennesaw State, 1 p.m. MST, ESPN3
The first milestone the upstart ASU program will reach will be its first-ever game at Kennesaw State on Friday. Kennesaw State has had its women’s lacrosse program since 2013 and last year was ranked No. 88 in the nation with an 8-9 record. They are replacing 8 seniors from last year’s team this spring, but do have six returning starters. One player that the Sun Devils have to keep an eye on is junior attacker Haley Swift who led the Owls last season with 66 points (37 goals and 29 assists).
Sunday: ASU at Stetson, 10 a.m. MST, ESPN3
After their Friday game, the Sun Devils get right back on the road and travel to Stetson on Sunday. Stetson will start their season against the Sun Devils after finishing No. 81 in the country last year. Last season was record-setting for the Hatters, who totaled 5 wins (matching a program record) to qualify for the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. One key player the Sun Devils need to watch is senior tri-captain Maddie Holvey, who started all 18 games for Stetson last season, compiling 20 goals and 8 assists. The Hatters are looking to build upon last season’s success this spring after signing 10 new recruits for this year’s campaign.
