Fact Sheet

GLASSBORO, NJ - The Rowan University women's lacrosse team enters the 2016 campaign with a young team that has high expectations. The Profs finished the 2015 season with a 10-7 overall record and they were 4-2 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC). Rowan advanced to the NJAC title game for the second straight year.
 
Head coach Lindsay Delaney enters her ninth season at the helm. She leads a program that is dealing with the loss of Becca Wood, Jamie Blondina and Vicky Sucharski to graduation. They were the team leaders on and off the field for the past four seasons. Brittney Schaeffer also graduated after two years with the squad and gave the defense a different style of play.
 
"The program has been preparing for them to graduate," Delaney said. "They left us in a good situation. All the underclassmen learned from their leadership off the field and their intensity on the field. They soaked in parts of their game and are prepared to take that forward. None of our alumni leave us, the program just changes."
 
On the surface the team looks like a veteran bunch, but in reality it has a lot of youth with 20 freshmen and sophomores on a 29-player roster. "For a while we had a big class then a small class, but the turnover was just too much," Delaney remarked. "The sophomores are still learning from last year's experience so we do have a low number of true upperclassmen, but I think it's exciting for the future and exciting moving forward."
 
The attack is led by returning players Rachel Emerson (sr. Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown) and Rachel Hofbauer (jr. Totowa, NJ/Wayne Valley). Emerson scored 24 goals and had eight assists for 32 points last season. She also collected 17 ground balls, caused nine turnovers and controlled five draws. Hofbauer tallied 20 goals and three assists and had 16 ground balls and seven draw controls. Danielle Hubbs (jr. Shamong, NJ/Seneca) will also work into the rotation. She played in 12 games last season and recorded eight goals.
 
The trio of Catie Herod (so. Ocean, NJ/Ocean Twp.), Kim Doyle (so. Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) and Alex DeGaris (so. Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) played their way onto the field as freshmen and will have a bigger impact on the offense as sophomores. Herod saw time in seven games with four goals and four ground balls. Doyle collected seven goals in nine contests and DeGaris netted three goals and one assist in eight contests.
 
Newcomers Maddie Bray (fr. Medford Lakes, NJ/Shawnee) and Megan Donnelly (jr. Sewell, NJ/Clearview Reg.) add depth to the attack.  Donnelly is a transfer from The College of New Jersey where she played in 15 contests over two seasons and tallied four goals her rookie campaign.
 
The midfield will be in flux as players move from attack and defense into the middle of the field. Brittany Bollendorf (sr. Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) will control the midfield along with Ali Herbert (jr. Little Egg Harbor, NJ/Pinelands Reg.) and McKayla Earley (so. Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.). Bollendorf was named to the NJAC All-Conference and Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Boardwalk All-Region first teams. She poured in 31 goals and added seven assists. Bollendorf also controlled 56 draws, collected 44 ground balls and caused 22 turnovers. Bollendorf ranked second in the conference in game-winning goals (4), third in ground balls (2.59), fourth in draw controls (3.29), 17^th in goals (1.82) and 19^th in points (2.24). Herbert will take the majority of the draws. She controlled 49 of them and picked up 13 ground balls. Herbert also contributed with 13 points on nine goals and four assists. Earley played in 16 games with seven points (four goals and three assists), had 13 ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers.
 
The defense is deep with veterans Kelly O'Brien (jr. Kendall Park, NJ/South Brunswick), Giselle Cortes (jr. Pennsauken, NJ/Pennsauken) and Jess Casterline (sr. Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan). The three have been playing beside each other for the past two seasons. O'Brien garnered IWLCA All-America third team recognition and earned NJAC All-Conference and IWLCA Boardwalk All-Region first team honors. She led the squad with 63 draw controls and 52 ground balls and was tied for second with 22 caused turnovers. O'Brien also scored five times and had two assists for seven points. She was second in the conference in ground balls (3.06) and third in draw controls (3.71). Cortes picked up 26 ground balls, caused 19 turnovers and controlled 12 draws. Casterline tallied 16 ground balls, caused five turnovers and controlled three draws.
 
 
 
Joining them are returning players Nicole Mickendrow (so. Jackson, NJ/Jackson Liberty), Emily Volpe (so. Washington Twp., NJ/Washington Twp.), Taylor Gretz (fr. Woolwich, NJ/Kingsway Reg.) and Madison Kirshner (so. Berlin, NJ/Eastern) along with newcomers Alex DiSciascio (fr. Mount Royal, NJ/Kingsway Reg.) and Mikala Gillespie (fr. Woodbine, NJ/Ocean City). Mickendrow participated in 16 games and had 30 ground balls, 15 caused turnovers and 10 draw controls. Volpe played in five games. Gretz returns to the field after a season-ending injury in the second game. Kirshner played in 10 games and had six ground balls. Gillespie received All-Cape Atlantic League first and second team honors and was named to the Press of Atlantic City All-Star first and second team.
 
"We are deeper then we have ever been," Delaney commented. "We should be able to substitute and change how we rotate and put players on the field because there is so much flexibility. As a staff we just can't get ahead of ourselves and we must pay attention to who it out on the field."
 
Erin Horner (so. Mullica Hill, NJ/Kingsway Reg.) returns as the starting goalie. She was a NJAC All-Conference honorable mention. Horner made 110 saves in 921:31 minutes of action. She had a save percentage of .404 and a goals against average (GAA) of 10.55. She ranked third in the conference in saves (6.47), sixth in save percentage and seventh in GAA. Rookie Emma Frost (fr. Stewartsville, NJ/Warren Hills Reg.) will serve as her back up.
 
"We are working with Erin to get her out of the cage more and be more aggressive," Delaney said. "She is so athletic, there is no reason to not get her out of the cage more. The rule changes are going to help her."
 
There are 16 rule changes in place this season. "We need to figure them out," Delaney stated. "Self-starting outside of the critical scoring area will be a change that affects the game the most."
 
Rowan is picked to finish third behind TCNJ and Montclair State University in the league.  "The NJAC continues to get better and it's going to get stronger as the programs bring in better players," Delaney commented.
 
The Profs get the season underway on Wednesday, March 2 at Ursinus College. Rowan plays its first home game on Saturday, March 5 against Stevens Institute of Technology at 1 p.m. The Profs once again head to Clermont, FL for two games over spring break. They play Western New England University on Tuesday, March 15 and SUNY Fredonia on Friday, March 18.
 
The NJAC slate begins on Tuesday, April 12 at Stockton University at 7 p.m. Rowan hosts Montclair State for Alumni Day on Saturday, April 16 at 1 p.m. The season concludes on Saturday, April 30 at home against Ramapo College at noon.
 
"We come out of the gate really strong with four of our six games in March against NCAA sweet sixteen, elite eight and final four opponents," Delaney remarked. "We want to make sure we are playing the strongest competition early to prepare us for the kind of competition we get later. We only have six NJAC games, so 10 of our contests are out of conference and we have to win the games we are supposed to win and we have to compete really hard in the other games."
 
"The key to the season is tempo," Delaney stated. "We are asking our defense to play with tremendous energy and speed, but our offense has to play with a good pace and stay calm and composed. If we can strike a balance between the hard tremendous energy on the defensive end and transition that into a good pace on the offensive end we will be successful."