After an abrupt end to the 2020 season, the St. Mary's lacrosse team came back this year to win 13 out of 19 games. Sophomore Erin Doyle and Juniors Kathleen Soller and Isabella Thompson-Davoli, and all of them agreed that this season’s highlight was, as Doyle put it “winning the conference tournament and going to the NCAA tournament. This was a first for us in program history and was a great experience.”
It took time and effort for the team to get to where it did. With last spring's season ending without warning and many restrictions this season, Doyle said that “it was really important for everyone to be putting in individual work in the off-season.”
This wasn’t the only extra work the team had to put in. When I spoke to Thompson-Davoli she remembered how specifically COVID has impacted the game: “We had to play games in masks for the first half of our season. We always had to be masked during practice, on the sidelines, and on the bus. In addition, we got tested 3 times a week, a couple of us ended up in quarantine, and we were constantly reminded to distance ourselves while not engaged in active play.” But St.Mary's still had the best season in program history and were still able to overcome all of these challenges to form a close-knit team.
To keep their momentum heading into the next season, the team must continue to work as they did this past year. As Doyle leaves, her advice to the returning players coming back is to continue to work on the great bond the team has formed. Meanwhile, Soller and Thompson-Davoli both pin their future success on working on more technical skills, such as stick work and conditioning. Soller is confident that if they continue to work hard in the off-season they will return “stronger than ever.”
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