Temple University Athletics
Photo by: Tommy Meehan
Lacrosse Ready for 2019 as the Owls Look to Make Their Mark in the AAC
2.7.19 | Women's Lacrosse
Temple lacrosse is ready to make history and make its mark in 2019, the first-ever season of American Athletic Conference lacrosse. The veteran Owls, led by a 10-member junior class, have threats in every position and 13th-year head coach Bonnie Rosen says the expectations are very high.
"It's a really exciting year," Rosen said. "We're not young, we're not hugely veteran, but our juniors all have a lot experience as do our sophomores. So I really look at that as a group that's ready to learn very quickly."
The time for making conference history will be a distant thought as Temple starts the season, with the Owls playing 10 non-league contests before starting their six-game AAC slate at home on March 30. Ultimately, four of six conference teams will advance to the first-ever AAC Tournament at Cincinnati in early May.
"It's really exciting to move into a new conference," said Rosen. Even though they're the same teams we've played in the past, that has kind of a fun piece to the later part of the season. The change to the conference, with fewer teams, has increased the non-conference part of our schedule where that now holds a greater number of our overall games. We're really focused there first and we'll be playing some of the Top 10 teams in the country so we'll be tested very early."
The Owls' breakout star of last year, Maddie Gebert, is back for her junior season and is one of many scoring threats the Owls have on their roster. Gebert was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team last year after scoring a team-high 33 goals. Of the nine other players who scored 10 or more goals in 2018, five return, including senior Amber Lambeth and junior Olivia Thompson who had 21 and 18 goals last season, respectively.Â
"My expectations for this year are certainly higher in terms of people being ready to keep increasing their game. Our sophomores and freshmen have stepped in as well. We're in a really good place. Our upperclassmen are settled in a way that we can keep growing, and that's allowing us to get better faster than we were able to when we were a little younger."
Lambeth and Thompson, along with senior goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey and junior defender Kara Nakrasius, will all serve as team captains in 2019.Â
Nakrasius was voted as a team captain by her peers for a second year in a row, and is a force for the Owls in a number of areas, most notably on the draw where she recorded 64 draw controls last year. That total was good enough for third all-time in program history. She also posted 21 caused turnovers, second on the team only to the graduated Nicole Latgis, an All-BIG EAST First Team and IWLCA All-Region Second Team loss for Temple this season.
"It's a nice group," said Rosen of the team's four captains, "and they all bring different qualities to the table when it comes to leadership. I feel really confident that it's a group that can lead well on the field and off the field."
Other offensive leaders returning for the Owls include junior Meghan Hoffman and sophomore Jackie Cerchio. Hoffman recorded a team-best 12 assists to go with 11 goals in 2018, while Cerchio burst onto the season with 15 goals, 28 ground balls and nine caused turnovers. Sophomores Jen Rodzewich (10 goals) and Bridget Whitaker (nine goals) also made an impact as rookies last year.
Returning in the cage are three goalkeepers who have all seen action, led by junior Maryn Lowell with a record of 9-6 last year. She is backed up by Hershey and sophomore Olivia Martin.
"We have a lot of different talent to try and figure out as everyone keeps growing, how to use them," Rosen said. "We won't have a static lineup all year. As our younger players understand and learn the college game a little bit better, learn how to read the game a little bit better, they're going to be able to use their skill sets to help us to increase our level of play."
The season begins at home for Temple with a game against Delaware on Feb. 8. The region rival has not been on Temple's schedule since 2016, and the Owls upset then-#19 Delaware 11-6 in 2015.
Three straight road games follow - at Rutgers, preseason #8 Princeton and Saint Joseph's. Another strong non-conference foe awaits in mid-March when the Owls travel to defending national champion James Madison, ranked fourth in the IWLCA Preseason Poll.
Perennial power Florida, #6 in the preseason, visits Temple as the Owls' first AAC opponent on March 30. The other home games for Temple in conference play are against Villanova (April 17) and ECU (April 20), with road games at UConn (April 6), Cincinnati (April 13) and Vanderbilt (April 27).
"In terms of our success on the field, we'd like to put ourselves in position to win an American Conference championship. We'd like to get ourselves to the NCAA Tournament. That's going to require a team that plays a very team game and not relying on one or two people. What I talk about as far as what our program's about is that we're always going after excellence and we don't want to settle for anything less."
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"It's a really exciting year," Rosen said. "We're not young, we're not hugely veteran, but our juniors all have a lot experience as do our sophomores. So I really look at that as a group that's ready to learn very quickly."
The time for making conference history will be a distant thought as Temple starts the season, with the Owls playing 10 non-league contests before starting their six-game AAC slate at home on March 30. Ultimately, four of six conference teams will advance to the first-ever AAC Tournament at Cincinnati in early May.
"It's really exciting to move into a new conference," said Rosen. Even though they're the same teams we've played in the past, that has kind of a fun piece to the later part of the season. The change to the conference, with fewer teams, has increased the non-conference part of our schedule where that now holds a greater number of our overall games. We're really focused there first and we'll be playing some of the Top 10 teams in the country so we'll be tested very early."
The Owls' breakout star of last year, Maddie Gebert, is back for her junior season and is one of many scoring threats the Owls have on their roster. Gebert was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team last year after scoring a team-high 33 goals. Of the nine other players who scored 10 or more goals in 2018, five return, including senior Amber Lambeth and junior Olivia Thompson who had 21 and 18 goals last season, respectively.Â
"My expectations for this year are certainly higher in terms of people being ready to keep increasing their game. Our sophomores and freshmen have stepped in as well. We're in a really good place. Our upperclassmen are settled in a way that we can keep growing, and that's allowing us to get better faster than we were able to when we were a little younger."
Lambeth and Thompson, along with senior goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey and junior defender Kara Nakrasius, will all serve as team captains in 2019.Â
Nakrasius was voted as a team captain by her peers for a second year in a row, and is a force for the Owls in a number of areas, most notably on the draw where she recorded 64 draw controls last year. That total was good enough for third all-time in program history. She also posted 21 caused turnovers, second on the team only to the graduated Nicole Latgis, an All-BIG EAST First Team and IWLCA All-Region Second Team loss for Temple this season.
"It's a nice group," said Rosen of the team's four captains, "and they all bring different qualities to the table when it comes to leadership. I feel really confident that it's a group that can lead well on the field and off the field."
Other offensive leaders returning for the Owls include junior Meghan Hoffman and sophomore Jackie Cerchio. Hoffman recorded a team-best 12 assists to go with 11 goals in 2018, while Cerchio burst onto the season with 15 goals, 28 ground balls and nine caused turnovers. Sophomores Jen Rodzewich (10 goals) and Bridget Whitaker (nine goals) also made an impact as rookies last year.
Returning in the cage are three goalkeepers who have all seen action, led by junior Maryn Lowell with a record of 9-6 last year. She is backed up by Hershey and sophomore Olivia Martin.
"We have a lot of different talent to try and figure out as everyone keeps growing, how to use them," Rosen said. "We won't have a static lineup all year. As our younger players understand and learn the college game a little bit better, learn how to read the game a little bit better, they're going to be able to use their skill sets to help us to increase our level of play."
The season begins at home for Temple with a game against Delaware on Feb. 8. The region rival has not been on Temple's schedule since 2016, and the Owls upset then-#19 Delaware 11-6 in 2015.
Three straight road games follow - at Rutgers, preseason #8 Princeton and Saint Joseph's. Another strong non-conference foe awaits in mid-March when the Owls travel to defending national champion James Madison, ranked fourth in the IWLCA Preseason Poll.
Perennial power Florida, #6 in the preseason, visits Temple as the Owls' first AAC opponent on March 30. The other home games for Temple in conference play are against Villanova (April 17) and ECU (April 20), with road games at UConn (April 6), Cincinnati (April 13) and Vanderbilt (April 27).
"In terms of our success on the field, we'd like to put ourselves in position to win an American Conference championship. We'd like to get ourselves to the NCAA Tournament. That's going to require a team that plays a very team game and not relying on one or two people. What I talk about as far as what our program's about is that we're always going after excellence and we don't want to settle for anything less."
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