Justin Oakman Photography

Lacrosse 2.21.18 by Josh Deer

SEASON PREVIEW: Concordia primed for big step forward in year two

Golden Bears open with third-ranked Lindenwood following strong exhibition campaign

ST. PAUL, Minn. – This Friday evening at 6 p.m., Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse opens its second season, playing host to #3 Lindenwood University (2-0) at the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium.

LIVE COVERAGE
Watch the home opener live online, free of charge courtesy of Stretch Internet's GameCentral portal. The game, a single camera high definition production, will be called by the Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. Flanagan is a St. Paul native and earned his degree at Fordham University (N.Y.) where he trained specifically as a sports broadcaster and was the voice of the Division I football and basketball teams.

The broadcast can also be supplemented with live stats, courtesy of Concordia athletics.

THE MATCHUP
Concordia and Lindenwood meet for the first time in CSP's 2018 season opener. The Lions started their lacrosse program as a club team in the WCLA from 2006 to 2011, moving to NCAA Division II varsity status for the 2012 campaign, producing a 15-2 record in the inaugural season. They haven't looked back, winning at least 15 games every season while not losing more than four games in any single year. The Lions are coming off a run to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals a year ago, earning the number one seed before falling in the final four to Florida Southern.

Lindenwood enters 2018 ranked third in the IWLCA Division II Preseason Top-25. Off to a 2-0 start including wins over #7 Queens (N.C.) and #24 Indianapolis, the Lions have bumped up to #2 in the country according to the Nike/USL Top-20 poll.

They are led early in the year by senior Sophie Buelow with six goals while senior Allison Hurley has a team-high eight points. In goal, Rachel Ortell has stopped 13 of the 24 shots she's faced on the season.

CSP's LAST TIME OUT: Preseason Recap
Concordia is coming off a strong preseason performance, with a pair of dominant home wins over the University of Minnesota club team (17-4) and the preseason favorite from the MWLC, last year's conference tournament champion Hamline Pipers (17-2).

In the exhibition opener, Concordia showed early signs of taking the next step as a young program. Last year, when CSP hosted Minnesota in exhibition play, the Bears jumped out to an early 6-1 lead in the first 15 minutes. But learning to manage their way through a full 60 minute game, the Bears allowed the Gophers to climb back into the game, trimming the lead to three early in the second half when Concordia finished strong with a 6-0 run to put the game away with a 19-10 final.

This year, Concordia once again got out to a hot start with a 12-0 run to break an early 1-1 tie and kept the game in running time (10-plus goal margin) the rest of the way, cruising to a 17-4 win.

In the second exhibition, Concordia faced a stronger opponent from the Division III ranks than it played from the DIII level last year in early season play. And despite a shortened 45 minute affair, Concordia rolled to a 17-2 win over an NCAA Tournament Pipers' team.

In each exhibition game, four players recorded hat tricks with sophomore Maddie Hengtes and freshman Raelyn Korinek doing so in each game. Hentges led the Bears in preseason with 10 total points, adding four assists. Upperclassmen Kallie LaValle, a senior, and Sheala Osborne, a junior, each handed out five assists during exhibition play. Last year's scoring leaders along with Hentges (38g, 15a), Kailey Heinl (43g, 4a) and Alina Boyce (32g, 9a) each had hat tricks against Hamline with Heinl adding six total points (5g, 1a) and Boyce five points (3g, 2a) during the preseason.

Heinl also led the club in the midfield with eight caused turnovers (next closest had three) and seven ground balls while adding four draw controls.

In goal, sophomore Katie Lottsfeldt played in 75 of the 105 possible minutes, making five saves with a .625 save percentage while facing 12 shots and allowing three total goals. Freshman Claire Hagen played the second half against Minnesota, allowing three goals while facing seven total shots with a .400 save percentage.

SEASON PREVIEW: Merging classes for the first time
In establishing the Concordia women's lacrosse program, the "firsts" continued to mount, starting with becoming the first NCAA Division II women's lacrosse program in the Upper Midwest and the only scholarship-offering program in the state of Minnesota to hiring its first head coach and announcing its first recruiting class.

The "firsts" seemed endless during the inaugural season: moving into the dorms, first fall practices, first scrimmages, first official draw, first goal, first win, first road win and first DII win (which were in the same game at Rockhurst) and finishing the first season with a .500 record (8-8) and a winning record at home (4-3).

In year two, the program is becoming more reliant on routine with established team norms, schedules and expectations. But, for the first time, second year head coach Mo Dunnigan will be merging an incoming class with returners.

Seven freshmen join the 21 player roster that includes one senior (Kallie LaValle), one junior (Sheala Osborne), 11 sophomores and a redshirt freshman (Katie Moynihan).

"It's been really cool and fun to watch because you never really know how that will go. Our freshmen have made a really big impact on the field and it's been embraced by the team. The fact that we have some freshmen who can come in and make an immediate impact and contribute to the program success right away," said Dunnigan.

A year ago, that process was completely different for Dunnigan and her roster full of rookies with the exception of the two transfers. And it's something Dunnigan recognizes in how much the sophomore class has grown in such a short period of time.

"It's been tremendous to watch what we feel like we can call our 'upperclassmen' (including the sophomores) have a year under their belts and understand what the schedule entails, what the demand is through the entire year and not having to learn everything new for the first time," said Dunnigan.

She continued, "A lot of our returners have excelled and been able to sustain the impact and growth that our program needs to attain the progress that we expect."

And while the upperclassmen are up to speed with what it means to be a college player, Dunnigan notes that the process for acclimating the newcomers has been different than a year ago when so many more players were introduced to college lacrosse – including Dunnigan – at the same time.

"It's definitely different this year because last year everyone was on the same page on day one. Everything was explained from the beginning, every process including our systems were starting from scratch," she explained. "Now we have so many returners who understand our offensive and defensive systems, it's just a matter of speeding that process up for our newcomers and doing it in a way that is productive for them and doesn't take away from the growth potential for our upperclassmen."

NEW YEAR, NEW SCHEDULE: Bears to face an all-Division II slate in 2018
In the inaugural season, Concordia competed as an NCAA Division II independent without a home conference. The status as an independent had some positives and negatives for a first year program. On the plus side, it allowed a young roster a chance to get game experience against a variety of opponents, from first year Division III programs to nationally-ranked Division II teams and a bit of everything in between.

The schedule had nationally ranked NAIA teams, first year DII programs and emerging DII programs.

But the downside was a front loaded schedule, as Concordia was forced to find games when teams weren't competing in the middle of their grueling league competitions. It also came with travel challenges with extended trips to Florida, Colorado and a six-state bus tour through the Midwest.

In 2018, Concordia will compete in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference (GLIAC), a strong DII conference with a solid reputation across all sports as well as women's lacrosse. It alleviates scheduling issues in finding non-conference opponents throughout the season and allowed Dunnigan to construct a more deliberate non-conference lineup to prepare the team for the GLIAC.

"Playing all Division II games this year is exciting," Dunnigan remarked. "We talk about the need to hold ourselves to higher standards, rise to the occasion and embrace the challenge that is our 2018 schedule. We'll be playing the entire season at a higher level and it will be far different than last year."

In addition to the full complement of Division II opposition, the conference schedule is aligned in a home/home format, allowing each team play twice. Last year, Concordia played one opponent twice, fellow first year DII program and now conference rival Northern Michigan, which CSP swept 14-8 on the road and 21-6 at home.

"As a coaching staff, we are really looking forward to meeting the same opponents twice, to be able to learn from that with quality scouts and allow our athletes to flourish in new ways is an exciting change and something that can help us grow our program."

While Dunnigan sees the positive aspect of being able to adjust and adapt to an opponent when meeting them twice in a year, she'll also have to manage competing against nationally-competitive squads that much more often.

Last year, Concordia played against a pair of nationally-ranked teams while some others reached the poll at various times of the season, along with nationally-ranked NAIA programs.

This year, the schedule has seven contests against teams ranked in the IWLCA Preseason Top-25 including three from the GLIAC.

"The GLIAC is a solid conference that has an established reputation that continues to grow both in terms of competition and ranked opponents," commented Dunnigan. "We're really excited to have already gained a little bit of respect within the league coaches and look to continue to push the envelope."

The Golden Bears were picked fifth in the seven team preseason poll with the top four teams in the final standings making the GLIAC Tournament.

"Making the GLIAC tourney is absolutely a goal and something that we're looking forward to attaining by the end of the year, and recognizing that we have growth along the way to reach that goal."

MEET THE NEW ASSISTANT COACHES
Year two features Dunnigan being flanked by a pair of new assistant coaches. Joining the program are first year graduate assistant Heather Coppola as the offensive coordinator and first year assistant Jen Menth to coach the goalies.

In addition to the attack, Coppola also coaches the team in the midfield specifically on the draw.

"Her background is east coast lacrosse, she grew up in the Syracuse area, went to school in Pennsylvania and has been at the Division I level. She has a lot of really great insight for our program, a new and growing program and we've been able to absorb a lot of that. We appreciate her perspective and insights."

She elaborated on Coppola's work as an offensive coordinator, "The offensive systems we have in place this year are going to be beneficial towards the rule changes and heightening our pace of play."

On the other side of the field, Menth brings expertise to the cage. "Jen has been wonderful to have on a regular basis at trainings working with Claire and Lotts and really being able to take some specific individual time with them and working on some of the finer details of their already strong, aggressive game-in-cage."

MEET THE TEAM: Goalies
"In 2017 in Concordia's inaugural season, Katie Lottsfeldt was the only goalie on the roster and played 940 of the team's 960 minutes protecting the net. Her aggressive style led to 75 ground balls and 12 caused turnovers while racking up 133 saves (8.3/game).

"Lotts is a strong returner and it's nice for her to be able to not have 100 percent of the workload. There was no rest for her, ever (last year). It will be nice to integrate that (rest) into her game."

She's joined by freshman Claire Hagen who received her first taste of game action this preseason with 30 minutes in goal, stopping two shots against Minnesota.

"Claire has done a phenomenal job coming in and making an immediate impact right away. We were really impressed with what we saw in the fall, she stepped up in the games and played aggressive and was laser-focused."

"We have small pieces that we're working with on both goalies to make sure that they are competing at their highest potential, but they are doing a great job and they are both challenging for time on a regular basis."

Overall, Dunnigan is excited about the goalie position entering the season and for years to come, "The beauty is that they are both very aggressive and active and like to disrupt an offense. To have two players with that mentality means we go full throttle every second of a game."

MEET THE TEAM: Defense
"I expect our defenders to be able to execute a lot more of the details we are looking for on that side of the ball," said Dunnigan. "Last year, it was a lot of fundamental principles we reinforced. This year, we've dug deeper to get to the next level and they've been great at applying them so far."

On the back line, the projected starters are all returning players and all four players started both of the exhibition contests this winter: sophomores Cassidy Leininger, Kylie Christensen, Sara Stickler and Tia Zachman.

"They've done a great job understanding the systems and also being able to educate some of our first year players whether they are defenders or midfielders in making sure that they learn it so we aren't utilizing a ton of practice time to do that."

"Cass will likely see a little bit more of a defensive/midfielder role and she's done a great job embracing those additional expectations. Kylie has done a really great job stepping into a bigger role within our defensive system as a utility defender."

MEET THE TEAM: Midfielders
"With the new rules, we are really going to be leveraging all of the athletes who can step into the mid role and be confident on both sides. We'll leverage them more than last year in the sense that we'll have one, two and maybe three mid lines all going at the same time making sure we are fresh throughout every transition and able to be at 100 percent on both sides of the ball at all times."

Two of the team's statistical leaders and a couple of freshmen will be looking to standout at the position in 2018 led by junior Sheala Osborne and sophomore Kailey Heinl. In the exhibition games, it was freshman Raelyn Korinek who got the start alongside them.

Heinl led the team with 43 goals last year and was one of three players to top 40 points on the season (47). She also caused problems in the middle of the field with the second most draw controls (40) while adding 27 ground balls and 17 caused turnovers.

Osborne added 16 goals, averaging one per game and scored 20 total points and also collected 27 ground balls, 34 draw controls and was second on the team with 31 caused turnovers.

"Shea has done a great job coming back and continuing to improve her game and elevate to the next level, along Kailey. We're excited to see what those two do with a year of Division II experience under their belts."

Korinek made an immediate impact during preseason, dropping hat tricks each game. The second exhibition against Hamline featured an assist, five draw controls and two ground balls.

"Rae has done a really good job of embracing what the expectations are for our midfielders and stepping into a really strong midfield group. She's been able to establish herself as a contributor on the draw, on the offense and defense on a regular basis."

Coming off the bench in each exhibition was freshman Margot Coomes with three goals on five shots along with five ground balls (third on the team), three draw controls and three caused turnovers.

"Margot is an absolutely phenomenal attacker who has embraced the mid role we've asked of her and has a great understanding of what the needs are on defense while executing at a high level on the attack regularly. She has great hands and looks so comfortable with the ball. She's a high level player for us."

MEET THE TEAM: Attack
"The unit as a whole has done a good job embracing the new systems we've put in place. They've started to find some of their own personal niche's in the systems in terms of what works for them as well as the team. This is the side of the ball where we have the most depth, we have a lot of athletes here."

The position is led by the second, third and fifth leading goal scorers from a year ago in sophomores Maddie Hentges (38g, 15a), Alina Boyce (32g, 9a) and senior Kallie LaValle (15g, 17a).

"Maddie is back at full strength which is exciting. She battled through injury all season last year and it's been tremendous to see what she does at 100 percent and full speed, really for the first time since she's been here," said Dunnigan. She continued, "We see Alina having a similar role as last year as she continues to elevate her game while fine-tuning other areas of her game to exploit her athleticism and knack for the net. Kallie has stepped up in games and been someone the team looks to and relies on. She's really shown her full potential in game-action."

The trio showed up in preseason, as well, picking up right where they left off last year. Hentges matched Korinek with a pair of exhibition hat tricks, but also set her teammates up with four assists and a team-high 10 points. LaValle wasn't far off pace with nine points, scoring four goals while dishing out a team leading five assists. Boyce had a five point performance in the Hamline game, scoring three goals while assisting on two others.

An added element to the position is the return of Katie Moynihan who scored a goal in the inaugural game last season before falling to a season ending injury in the first half of the contest.

"Moyni is back from injury and to have her anywhere on the field is a game-changer for our program. She's a tremendous athlete and has a high lacrosse IQ. She's going to help ground our offense in terms of being a quarterback on the field for the offense, and we're thrilled to see her transition back into the game."

While continuing to emphasize the team making an impactful step forward in year two, Dunnigan closed by stating, "The long term vision we have is to make the conference tournament this year, then reach for the top of the conference and eventually seeing ourselves in the NCAA Tournament. That's the vision, plan and expectation we have in this program going forward."

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Players Mentioned

#2 Alina Boyce: A; 5' 6"; Sophomore

#17 Kylie Christensen: D; 5' 8"; Sophomore

#22 Kailey Heinl: M; 5' 5"; Sophomore

#7 Maddie Hentges: A; 5' 4"; Sophomore

#15 Kallie LaValle: A/M; 5' 10"; Senior

#11 Cassidy Leininger: D; 5' 5"; Sophomore

#34 Katie Lottsfeldt: G; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#4 Katie Moynihan: A; 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman

#19 Sheala Osborne: M; 5' 2"; Junior

#23 Sara Stickler: D; 5' 7"; Sophomore

#33 Tia Zachman: D; 5' 2"; Sophomore

#14 Margot Coomes: M/A; 5' 5"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#2 Alina Boyce
: 5' 6"; Sophomore
: A

#17 Kylie Christensen
: 5' 8"; Sophomore
: D

#22 Kailey Heinl
: 5' 5"; Sophomore
: M

#7 Maddie Hentges
: 5' 4"; Sophomore
: A

#15 Kallie LaValle
: 5' 10"; Senior
: A/M

#11 Cassidy Leininger
: 5' 5"; Sophomore
: D

#34 Katie Lottsfeldt
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: G

#4 Katie Moynihan
: 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman
: A

#19 Sheala Osborne
: 5' 2"; Junior
: M

#23 Sara Stickler
: 5' 7"; Sophomore
: D

#33 Tia Zachman
: 5' 2"; Sophomore
: D

#14 Margot Coomes
: 5' 5"; Freshman
: M/A