Winthrop’s lacrosse team is getting ready for its upcoming spring season. After finishing last season with seven wins and eight losses, the team is looking to come back better than ever.
“We’re all pretty excited about the upcoming season. It’s been a long fall, but so far, we’re looking good,” said Kelsey Johnson, senior business major.
Johnson plays midfield and is looking forward to having only her second full regular season collegiately since both the 2020 and 2021 seasons were shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We didn’t have a real fall last year,” said head coach Julika Blankenship. “We weren’t allowed to practice for 20 hours.
“And I do believe that practice does, in fact, make progress and perfection, so the freshmen and sophomores haven’t had a real fall yet. So they’re kind of feeling out the fall for the first time, so that’s been fun.”
Losing most of their starting lineup at the end of last season has not slowed down the team at all.
“We’ve graduated some players that have had a lot of tenure, so it’s been really fun to watch the freshmen and sophomores fill those roles,” Blankenship said.
Some of the players are excited about this development as well.
“I’m just looking forward to the new attack coming in. We’ve lost all of our starting attackers, so I’m excited to see some underclassmen step up and fill that role,” said Megan Dee, senior business administration major.
“I’m really excited to get to play with the freshmen. I also haven’t had a real season yet so I’m very excited,” said Kimora Bailey, junior business administration major.
Blankenship noted that the team still has time to adjust to so many new players.
“Fall is an exciting time and it’s a time where we get to work out a lot of our kinks,” Blankenship said.
The team has done very well in their scrimmages and recently played their first game with full regulations in place at Catawba High School.
“We’ve had some very promising things these past two scrimmages, and so hopefully, we will continue to have promising things in our next few games,” Blankenship said.
“The players right now that are on the field are young in their experience. It takes a lot of time to get acclimated in that and getting acclimated with the other players in your offensive set,” Blankenship said. “But it has been neat to watch the younger players get more minutes on the field.”
Overall, the team is just excited to be back to playing and experiencing a regular season of the sport that they love.
“I’m just hyped to be a senior. It’s my last ride so I’m a little nervous and anxious, but overall I’m just excited to play,” said Lauren Asher, senior exercise science major.
The Winthrop lacrosse schedule will be posted as soon as it has been approved by the athletic department.
