The Oswego State Lakers women’s lacrosse team has started the 2017 season 3-5 overall and are 1-1 in the conference. The Lakers have a big stretch of games coming up within the SUNYAC and first-year head coach Britt Howard knows the importance of each and every game.
“We have to take it one game at a time and every team is different,” Howard said. “We have to be on top of our game because each team we will be playing definitely has some studs on their team.”
Howard knew coming in that this season would encounter some road bumps along the way with the amount of turnover on the roster.
“It’s definitely a rebuilding year, especially after losing those seven seniors who were such a big part of the team,” Howard said. “The younger girls are adapting to my coaching style so far this season, and I think that’s a huge positive for us moving forward.”
The Lakers will host their senior day on Saturday at 3 p.m. against SUNY Oneonta. The Red Dragons currently have a 5-3 overall record and are 2-0 in conference play.
Senior midfielder Kelsey Henderson and senior attacker Kendall Appelbaum will be honored in a pre-game ceremony on Saturday. Both players are important parts of the team’s success and are looking forward to being honored.
“I think it captures both of the accomplishments both [Kendall] and I have had throughout our years here,” Henderson said. “We both started out our freshman year here and it’s just a night we get to celebrate our accomplishments and teams we’ve been a part of.”
The two players will have family and friends making the trip to Oswego to celebrate what this day means to the student athletes. Appelbaum has only played two season on the women’s lacrosse team, but has played defense for the Oswego State women’s ice hockey team for four years. She has been through a senior day already this year and did not expect there to be so much emotion involved.
“That was hard, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be,” Appelbaum said. “After four years of college athletics you begin to realize there is more to life than college athletics so it’s a little bit depressing.”
Being a two-sport athlete can be mentally and physically draining for any athlete to have to endure, at any level of competition. With the help of the Oswego State training staff, Appelbaum feels good at this point.
“It’s tough to go from skating to running, but you just get used to it,” Appelbaum said. “I work with the trainers and coach knows where I’m coming from so you just have to adjust to it.”
Both athletes understand the importance of the upcoming conference games to finish out the season and know they need wins if they want to make it to the SUNYAC playoffs.
“I think we have to concentrate on working together as a team, not only on the offensive side, but defense as well,” Henderson said. “We need to be able to transition the ball, and we’re going to have to keep our bodies prepared being that the games are so close together.”
