By Lane Fahey, Columnist
As conference play begins for both men’s and women’s lacrosse, the Paladins as a whole are striving for successful postseasons.
In the third season of Furman women’s lacrosse, the Paladins look to improve their conference record with a five game conference homestand that started with a 8-7 win over Old Dominion on Fri., April 7.
Leading the team last year in goals with 49, senior attacker Ashley Trice is looking for a championship in her final season.
“We’ve been in the locker room together and we’ve come up with what our main focuses are as a team so that we can come out with some rings,” Trice said.
Unlike most sports at Furman that compete in the Southern Conference (SoCon), the women’s lacrosse team plays in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN). However, this will be the final season the Paladins play in this conference, with SoCon adding women’s lacrosse to the 2017-2018 season.
There will be six teams for the inaugural season of women’s lacrosse in the Southern Conference, including full-time programs Wofford, Mercer and Furman. Central Michigan, Delaware State and Detroit Mercy will become associate members of the conference.
The last game of the homestand is against Jacksonville, the defending regular season champions since women’s lacrosse started in the ASUN in 2013.
“That’s kind of like our big rival,” Trice said. “That’s another game that we have yet to come out with a win so we always come out really fired up and this’ll be the year that we definitely beat them.”
The women hope to beat Jacksonville University April 23 at 12:00 p.m. at Paladin Stadium.
With three straight conference wins, the men’s lacrosse team had an important 8-7 victory over the Air Force Academy on Sat., April 8.
Despite a 1-6 start, the men’s team are still determined to win the conference, and improve to the NCAA tournament.
“Everyone on our team wants to win a conference championship,” said junior attacker Jonah Moore. “After that, we would go to the NCAA tournament. That’s been the goal the past two years and it hasn’t really worked out and I don’t think the work ethic has been there as much as it needs to be. I really think this year we’ve all gone all in so we’re hoping to achieve that goal.”
For the week of March 22 through 27, sophomore midfielder David Williamson was named the SoCon offensive player of the week. Williamson had a career-high five goals in a 11-10 win over Mercer.
This is the first season the men will have a full team, consisting of all four classes.
“Not many players will get to say they helped found and build a Division One lacrosse program, but we (especially the upperclassmen who have been here for all or most of it) will get to,” said Moore via email.
The men will look to improve the conference record with a game April15 at noon against High Point University. The final home game will be April 22 at 12:00 p.m. against VMI at Paladin Stadium.
