After starting the season 1-6, St. Joe’s women’s lacrosse pieced together a four-game win streak to start Atlantic 10 Conference play before falling to University of Massachusetts 14-11 March 26.
A double overtime 9-8 win over Davidson College, followed by dominating victories over George Washington, George Mason and La Salle, proved the Hawks have the talent and potential to make a run for the A-10 title.
Senior Maddie Yoder, midfielder and A-10 Co-Offensive Player of the Week for the week of March 24, scored a career-high eight goals in the team’s 23-3 win over La Salle March 22. The 20-point win margin set the record for the highest win margin for the Hawks against a Division I opponent.
Yoder’s performance also tied the second most goals in a single game in program history. She said her success comes from the hard work her teammates put in at practice.
“My success comes from a lot of my teammates and them putting in the work next to me, whether they’re passing me the ball or getting through, creating space, or they’re dodging really hard getting a double team, and I’m the one that’s open,” Yoder said. “Everybody has been working really hard, and that leads to our success.”
In the second game of the win streak, head coach Alex Kahoe won her 100th game in the position with a 15-7 win over George Washington March 12. Kahoe said the struggles the team faced when playing top competitive teams earlier in the season built the character of the team.
“I think that when you handle adversity together, it helps you understand who you are as a team,” Kahoe said.
Their most recent loss, the only in conference play so far, put the Hawks fifth in the A-10 standings. While their conference record (4-1) is tied with Davidson and St. Bonaventure, their overall record (5-7) places them below the two teams. But Kahoe said there were still great moments in the loss against UMass, as well as moments the team can reflect on.
“Our team is hungry and able to look at that game and know that we haven’t reached our best yet,” Kahoe said.
Senior midfielder Bella Miceli said a key to improving throughout the season was communication and trust.
“Really working with each other, talking to each other, and just trusting our skills, our coaches and trusting what we’re telling each other to do — those are the main things that we really harp on in order to be successful,” Miceli said.
Miceli said the team as a whole has helped her with her success, but as a midfielder, the defense and fifth-year goalie Jorden Concordia have especially helped her achieve success when playing on the defensive side of the game.
“I always had them by my side, and they’re going to help me throughout the game and back me up through anything that I do,” Miceli said
Yoder said the team took what they learned from their early season losses and were driven to work hard. They wanted to “flip the switch” on their season.
“We show up to practice, work really, really hard, push each other and do anything that we can to prove ourselves because we know that we’re capable of winning the A-10,” Yoder said.
