The Seton Hill University (SHU) women’s lacrosse team is fine tuning its art this fall in the off season. After bringing in nine freshmen and only losing four seniors, the team is looking strong and reinforced. Even though the fifth-year seniors lost were integral parts of the team, the women hope to compete in the top level of the PSAC conference this spring.
The women have played the likes of the Pittsburgh power Duquesne and competed with them by playing their Division 1 NCAA team and their club team. The only fifth-year senior this year is Nicole Nath, a local player from Pittsburgh, who has dedicated herself to the program even through the bus accident in 2013.
“We saw a lot of good things and also a lot of opportunities to grow and improve before season starts in March,” said Nath. “We have a lot of rookies that are learning and really catching on to playing at the college level and are positively mixing it up.”
Another leader on the team is senior Charlotte Cunningham, who is putting in the time off the field in her internship to further the reputation of the program. She organized the first annual Coach Kristina Quigley 5K Sept. 17.
Cunningham said that this fundraising event helped to raise money for the Coach Quigley Project for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Laurel Region (BBBSLR). They raised nearly $5,000 for the project to support the mentoring efforts of BBBSLR.
She is working with BBBSLR to create the Coach Quigley foundation, which is in honor of the late coach of the program who passed away tragically in 2013 due to the bus accident. This foundation aids the community and the university, and continues to bring support to the women’s program. The women look to continue this momentum on and off the field and into the spring season in 2017.
“We are doing a lot of teaching and learning to help improve ourselves as a whole. The girls are working hard every morning to not only make themselves better but also make their teammates better,” said head coach Courtney Grove of the women’s lacrosse team. “We will finish up our fall season on Saturday Oct. 15 as we host our own play day and our alumni.”
Published By: Paige Parise