Anyone have any sense how the new Women’s Lacrosse Team will do in its initial season next spring?

[DC_Area_Panther]

Knowing nothing about Women’s Lacrosse other than that the ACC seems very strong in this sport — it does appear that on paper that recruiting for our newest Pitt sports team has been very good.

Anyone knowledgeable about women’s Lacrosse have an idea whether this team should be competitive in its initial season?

Just curious.

 

[pittjas]

Probably terrible. But I know nothing about the team, the coach, or really even the sport. Just pretty hard to have a competitive team when you have a roster full of freshmen/transfers/girls who are club level players.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I would imagine that they won't be very good at all, but a couple of the transfers that they brought in are (based on reputation) pretty good players.

One of their transfers was a second team all American D2 player this past season. They got a grad transfer from Virginia Tech who was first team all ACC three times and was an all American in all four of her seasons at Tech. They got two transfers from Syracuse (who played for the championship this year), one of whom started every game this past season for them.

So they will have some good individual talent. But will they have enough of it, or enough depth, to be even a decent team? Probably not, but who knows?

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Did some internet research after I posted:

D1 Women's Lacrosse typical roster is about 30 players with a maximum NCAA limit of only 12 ships to allocate across the roster -- pretty much all partials, I expect.

Women's Lacrosse National Rankings Last Season for all ACC Women's Lacrosse Teams

1. North Carolina
2. Boston College
3. Syracuse
4. Notre Dame
13. Duke
22. Virginia
24. Louisville
38. Virginia Tech
--- Pitt--Did not play in 2020 or 2021 -- Club Team was 2019 National Champions

Pitt Roster has:

12 transfers (8 are Grad Students)
3 Seniors (Holdovers from 2019 Club National Championship Team)
6 Class of 2020 Recruits (Sophomores)
15 Class of 2021 Recruits (Freshmen)

Looks like trial by fire given the ACC strength.

 

[FallingRun84]

Who they get for goalie will play a large part as well.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Who they get for goalie will play a large part as well.

One of the transfers is a goalie. I would guess she is the presumptive starter the first year.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Sounds likely. Other two listed goalies are both sophomores.

 

[mike412]

One of my friends in law school had played lacrosse at Washington & Lee. This was back in the 1970s when they were a top 25 program. He never had played the game before arriving there. He had played football and run track at Wilson HS, a public school in DC. He lettered 3 years there. He was a great athlete and could outrun 90% of the players he played against.

We used to go to matches once or twice a month at Maryland. College park is only 15 minutes from NW DC. He would wear his game sweater and take 3 or 4 sticks and we would play catch. We went mainly to meet women. In those days, good looking coeds flocked to those matches.

It’s really not that hard to catch the ball. I think that more than many other sports, natural athletic ability is paramount. That probably will hurt Pitt the first few years because overlooked recruits who sign with us mostly will be overlooked because they are not athletic enough to play at better programs.

I would think that in another conference Pitt would be decent. They are recruiting in the right areas of the country and the transfers appear to be surprisingly good. But, the ACC is head and shoulders above every other conference.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Knowing nothing about Women’s Lacrosse other than that the ACC seems very strong in this sport — it does appear that on paper that recruiting for our newest Pitt sports team has been very good.

Anyone knowledgeable about women’s Lacrosse have an idea whether this team should be competitive in its initial season?

Just curious.

No.