Nicole Haines (left) of West Chester and Leigh Titus of Lock Haven (right).
Lock Haven, Pa. - For the second straight year, West Chester and Lock Haven have been picked by the league’s head coaches to win their respective divisions in PSAC lacrosse. The two squads, which are the defending divisional champions, garnered all but one first place vote combined and were the favorites going away.
The four teams that made the PSAC Tournament last year were picked to finish atop their divisions. West Chester was followed by Bloomsburg in the East, which received the other first place vote. Those two teams were followed in order by East Stroudsburg, Shippensburg, Millersville and Kutztown. In the West, Lock Haven, the NCAA national runner-up last year after losing in the national championship game, was followed by Mercyhurst, which received five of six second place votes after making the PSAC Tournament last year in its first year in the league. The Lakers were followed by cross-city rival Gannon in third place, IUP in fourth, Slippery Rock in fifth and Edinboro in sixth place. The Fighting Scots will participate as a full member of the PSAC in lacrosse this year after playing as an independent last year in their first season of existence as a program.
With the PSAC now having 12 full-time members in lacrosse, the league tournament will expand from four to six teams this year. The top three teams in each division will qualify, with the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds from each division playing each other in the quarterfinals on the Tuesday following the conclusion of the regular season, which will be on April 27 this year. The two winners will then advance to the semifinals against the two No. 1 seeds from each division, which will be held on April 30 with the championship match scheduled for May 1. This year’s semifinals will be held at the home of the East champion.
West Chester is once again the favorite in the PSAC East despite having its five-year run as PSAC Tournament champion end last year despite a 14-3 record and a perfect 10-0 mark in PSAC East play. The Golden Rams also narrowly missed out on defending their NCAA championship last year after losing to Lock Haven in the championship game of the PSAC Tournament. There will be some new faces that the Golden Rams will look to this year as they lose their top three scorers from last year that accounted for 135 of West Chester’s 290 goals on the year, including PSAC East Player of the Year Courtney Whiting. They do return two experienced attackers, however, in junior Claire Grimwood (33g, 28 asst.) and senior Nicole Haines (29g, 18 asst.). They also return one of the league’s top defenders in senior Katy Crouse, a former All-American and All-Region selection in her career. That will be important, as the Golden Rams will be breaking in a new goalkeeper as All-PSAC goalie Mary Beth Green graduated last year.
Lock Haven, which had one its finest seasons in school history last year with an 18-4 record and the national runner-up finish, loses its top scorer from last year in Amber Hoch but returns its next nine top scorers who accounted for 293 of the team’s 383 goals last year. This group is led by Leigh Titus (68g, 30 asst.), an All-American and the PSAC West Player of the Year last year. Also returning is last year’s West Freshman of the Year, Kayleigh Johnson (66g, 38 asst.), who led the team in assists and points last year and was third in goals. In addition to all of the offensive firepower the Lady Eagles have returning, they also bring back goalie Heather Sacko, who saw the majority of time in net last year as a freshman.
Listed below are the preseason PSAC women’s lacrosse coaches polls. First place votes are in parenthesis.
Eastern Division
1. West Chester (5)
2. Bloomsburg (1)
3. East Stroudsburg
4. Shippensburg
5. Millersville
6. Kutztown
Western Division
1. Lock Haven (6)
2. Mercyhurst
3. Gannon
4. IUP
5. Slippery Rock
6. Edinboro