DURHAM, N.H.- Now that the spring season is underway, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) women’s lacrosse season has already been unfolding, now with only four games left in the 2024 season.
Their season had begun all the way back on Feb. 9 with their first game ending in a 19-8 victory over Marist College.
Their next game would finish in a close fight against Boston University in a 14-18 loss.
New Hampshire’s first home game of the season would be on Feb. 17, resulting in a 12-11 win over Detroit Mercy, helping give them a great 2-1 start.
Unfortunately, the New Hampshire women’s lacrosse team has been in a bit of a slump for a while now. From Feb. 24 until March 27, the Wildcats have lost seven straight games making it very difficult at this point for them to make the upcoming 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Tournament.
Losses to Holy Cross, UConn, Canisius and Dartmouth were ones that UNH just didn’t seem fully locked in or prepared for from start to finish. While the other three losses they had to UMBC, Vermont and Iona expressed their highest level of play, but just fell short when it mattered at the end.
Currently 0-2 in the America East (AE) Conference, New Hampshire looks to face four more AE conference teams including UAlbany, Bryant, Binghamton and Umass Lowell to finish off the 2024 season.
In matchups last season against America East competition the Wildcats had finished at 2-4, and a 5-10 overall record. They had their struggles throughout the season last year and that seems to be the same scenario this year for the women’s lacrosse team.
With four games left, there’s a chance UNH can improve from their overall and conference record last year, but it would take lots of grit from each player to surpass their previous season mark.
New Hampshire is currently ranked 97 for the official NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse RPI, and sits in last place of seven (0-2) in the America East Conference. UMass Lowell has the best overall record at 8-3 (0-2 AE), but UAlbany leads the conference rankings at 1st place with a 3-0 record.
For America East statistical rankings, Katie Taranto, attack graduate student, ranks at 12 for goals per game (gpg) at 2.20 gpg for the ‘Cats while also ranking at 14th for shots per game (spg) with 5 spg.
Allie Connerty, junior attack, sits at 5th in the America East for assists per game (apg) with 1.11 apg on the season so far.
Junior goalkeeper, Maria Hagan, ranks second in the America East in saves per game with 8.60 and has a total of 86 saves on the season.
Team leader in goals (22), points (26), and shots/shots on goal (50, 36) is Taranto, who shows her edge compared to others on the team with the extra years of experience. Taranto also recently scored her 75th goal of her career at home in the loss to Dartmouth College.
Hannah McCarthy, graduate student, ranks second on the team in goals (14). While Liv Dunn, graduate student, has 12 goals for third on the team.
Connerty ranks at first on the team in total assists (10). Grace Curran, senior, ranks second with seven assists. Senior midfielders, Mackenzie MacEachern and Olivia O’Connor, ranked at first (30) and second (25) for draw controls since they both take a majority of them throughout the game.
Top defender on the team, graduate student Ava Schroeder, leads the team in ground balls (20) and caused turnovers (14) to express her defensive presence on the field during the game.
New Hampshire, as mentioned, has four more games left to play in the 2024 season, hopefully looking to send a lot of these seniors and graduate students out on the right note. The rest of their games will be against America East teams making one game as important as the next the rest of the way through.
