May 14, 2009
By Amy Farnum Novin
NCAA.com
There are no excuses for the Salisbury University women’s lacrosse team this year.
The top-ranked Sea Gulls have advanced to the NCAA Division III semifinals for the third consecutive season, and this time they are determined to claim the trophy that has eluded the program in their nine other NCAA Tournament appearances.
It has not been an easy road back to the semifinals, however. The squad has suffered a lengthy list of injuries, beginning with All-American midfielder Jessica Chmielewski in the fifth game of the season with an ACL injury. Last month, the Sea Gulls then lost their second-leading scorer at the time – Kim Cudmore – with a leg injury, and at least four other players have been sidelined over the past month in the most important stretch of the season.
“In the past we have never really been plagued with so many different injuries,” said head coach Jim Nestor. “Every team has injuries throughout the season, but it seems like something new comes up once a week – someone is on the sideline when they should be out in the field for us.”
Nestor has had to make some line-up adjustments, but other than a 10-9 loss to Franklin & Marshall, the Sea Gulls have remained fairly dominant on the field, and rank third and fourth, respectively, in scoring offense (18.20 G/PG) and scoring defense (7.50 GAA).
“We’ve been switching some people around, and have had players come off the sidelines, and maybe have gone deeper on the bench than we probably would have or need to in bigger games,” said Nestor. “We’ve been really happy with the players that have stepped up into those starting roles.”
Seven different players have contributed at least 30 points this season as the Sea Gulls, led by senior midfielder Robyn Bishop, who has netted 58 goals on the year. She tallied a career-high six goals in an 18-14 NCAA quarterfinal victory over Catholic University, and anchors a midfield unit that Nestor says have been a key component of the Sea Gulls’ 19-1 season.
“I think our midfield has played very consistently this year, and that’s been a nice thing,” said Nestor. “They get up and down the field, and play good defense and they are all contributing on the offensive end.”
The Sea Gulls fell to Franklin & Marshall in the 2007 semifinals, and by one goal to Hamilton in last year’s semifinal contest, but Bishop commented that she and her teammates are out to change the outcome this year following the Catholic victory.
"This is our year,” said Bishop. “We are sick of being the team watching somebody else get the [national championship] trophy."
Nestor agrees that the Sea Gulls are ready to challenge for the title in 2009.
“We’re looking at it as we want to improve from last year of course,” said Nestor. “We’re not trying to make excuses someone goes down with an injury. We feel we have some depth and that someone can step up. I think that’s what the girls mean when they say, ‘this is our year.’ We just don’t want to make any excuses that we didn’t get the job done.”
Salisbury will face Gettysburg in the NCAA semifinals on May 16 at 5 p.m. in Salem, Va., while defending champion Hamilton and Franklin & Marshall will tangle in the second contest at 8 p.m. The two winners will meet for the title on May 17 at 3 p.m.
