POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Marist women's lacrosse opens its season this weekend, taking on Colgate on Saturday, February 8 at 1 p.m. With that, we are wrapping up our 2020 season preview series today with a look at the team's final positional group, midfield.
The Red Foxes are in great shape when it comes to returning midfielders from last season. The team did not lose a single midfielder to graduation, thus the whole position group will be returning for another go this season.
- Marist returns four midfielders from last year's roster for the 2020 season.
- Jana Rothman appeared in all 18 games last season, making 12 starts, and is returning as a captain for the upcoming year.
- Jessica Lasaponara is the other returning senior midfielder, and she returns after starting in all 18 games in 2019.
- The other two returning midfielders are junior Romy Villemure and sophomore Melissa Bucher.
- With Rothman returning, the Red Foxes get back one of their most productive midfielders from last year's team. Rothman is looked to as one of the senior leaders and role models on the team, having been named to the MAAC All-Academic Team each of the past two years, as well as the ECAC President's Honor Roll in 2018. Last season, Rothman recorded five goals and five assists, both career-high totals. She also had a career-high three assist game against Army on February 13. For her career, Rothman has scored six goals and dished out five assists, to go with 39 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers.
- In Lasaponara, Marist gets back a staple of its midfield over the past three seasons. Besides starting in all 18 games last season, she had appeared in 20 games and made nine starts in the two years prior. In 2019, she scored a career-high nine goals to go with two assists for a career-high 11 points. Lasaponara also accumulated a career-high nine ground balls and seven caused turnovers. She hopes to continue that upward trend into 2020.
- Villemure recently transitioned from defense to midfield, and Head Coach Jessica Wilkinson couldn't be more pleased with the results, noting an impressive performance in the preseason so far. Villemure had the best season of her career last season, appearing in all 18 games, making six starts, and scoring six goals and totaling two assists. She also grabbed 22 ground balls and caused a career-high 19 turnovers. She will look to transition the tools that made her successful at defense and use them to be a successful midfielder.
- Bucher also recently made the transition from defense to midfield, and Wilkinson was also impressed with the way she made that transition. She has proven to be very athletic and aware, and embraced the role.
- Three new freshman midfielders are joining the program ahead of the 2020 season, along with one transfer.
- Alexandra Di Chiara joins the program as a junior, coming from the University of Denver. As a Pioneer, she saw action in five games last season, and totaled a career-high three goals and two assists, as well as two ground balls, three caused turnovers, and three draw controls. Wilkinson expects Di Chiara to be a threatening midfield option this season.
- Eileen Manning is one of the freshman midfielders, and Wilkinson noted that she may play a bigger role than some may expect this season.
- Ashley Potter and Shea Thomson will also be joining the program as freshman midfielders this season, and will be providing valuable depth at the position.
"We certainly have a deeper group of midfielders this year.
Jana Rothman and
Jessica Lasaponara both have a lot of experience and will be expected to lead their team this season as seniors," Wilkinson said. "Junior
Romy Villemure and sophomore
Melissa Bucher have recently transitioned from defense to midfield and I couldn't be more pleased with their performance during the preseason. They've both proven to be very athletic and aware and have embraced the midfield role. We also have transfer Alex Di Chiara who has seamlessly transitioned into the team as another threatening midfield option. I know we plan to utilize a lot of our players this year, particularly the midfielders. I expect them to be aggressive on defense, to produce on attack and of course everything in between."
