Bloomsburg to Open 2005 Lacrosse Season on Sunday

BLOOMSBURG— Change. It's never easy for anyone, but for the 2005 Bloomsburg University lacrosse team, it's an unavoidable obstacle.

The Huskies have a new head coach in Dawn Strunk. The former coach at LIU-Brooklyn took over the helm of the Bloomsburg program when former coach Kathy Frick accepted the head coaching job at Lafayette.

The Huskies open the 2005 season on Sunday against Gannon University in Gaffney, SC as part of their annual spring trip.

Last season, the Huskies finished 9-9, 7-5 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and took second in the conference championships. Strunk hopes with new strategies and a new style the Huskies can improve upon last year's finish.

"One of our goals is to re-vamp the program," Strunk said. "I'm new and we have a lot of new players, so we're going to have a new style."

The Huskies lost four seniors to graduation including All-American Georgia Carinci and first-team All-PSAC selection Marcie Zilinski. Bloomsburg also lost two-year starting goalie, Linda Schultz.

But the Huskies have four seniors that have compiled a record of 32-15, including a NCAA Championship semifinal appearance in their first three seasons at Bloomsburg to lead this year's squad.

All-American Shelia Zilinski and 2004 Team MVP Danielle Yeager are two of the top returners for the Huskies, along with Pam Cianni and Meghann McDugall. Zilinski finished second for the Huskies in scoring with 56 goals and 14 assists, while Yeager was third on the team with 51 goals and 21 assists. McDugall and Cianni saw major time for the Huskies last year at midfield and defense, respectively, and Strunk is expecting them to come up with big things again this year.

"The seniors are going to have to really take control and relay messages and one of the most important things they will do is control the tempo of the game," Strunk said. "They're also going to have to really keep anxieties low in tight games and pressure situations and slow down the game if we need to, or if they see an opportunity to push the ball up the field, then they have the ability to do so."

Along with the seniors, Bloomsburg returns four juniors and two sophomores. Juniors Megan Heller and Allison McFatridge return at attack for the Huskies, while Karla Honeywell and Ashley Childs return at the midfield position. Childs finished fourth on the team in scoring with 15 goals and five assists, while Honeywell scored seven goals and had three assists. McFatridge had six goals and three assists last year in 14 games for the Huskies.

Sophomores Brittany Wilkins and Katie Buell also return for Bloomsburg. Wilkins saw significant times at defense for the Huskies, playing in all 18 games, making 17 starts. She finished the season with four goals and five assists.

With Cianni, Wilkins and newcomer Cali Thoms look to be the primary defenders for the Huskies, which Strunk believes will demand hard work, mentally and physically, to integrate the new defensive plays.

"We're teaching them something they've never done a zone defense," Strunk said. We're going to have three main plays that we're going to work on depending on who we're against."

Strunk said that with the different options, the Huskies will be able to attack their opponents more strategically than with just one form of defense.

"Our opponent will dictate what defense we will play," she said. "If our opponents have a few key players, we can play a zone defense to help us cover every part of the field, but if they only have one or two main scorers, then we can put a tough man-to-man defense on them and apply more pressure to the offense."

Offensively, the addition of new plays will allow the Huskies to have a balanced attack. Strunk will look to have even stats across the board for her attack and midfielders.

"Not really one person will be our primary scorer," Strunk said. "We're going to see a lot of different people scoring this season. I'm focusing mostly on having a lot of different people in scoring position and a variety of weapons."

Among those weapons will be freshmen Cali Toms and Angela Picciotti, both of which Strunk believes could crack the starting lineup. Bridget Maenner, Jamie Spitzer, Johanna Jones and Tracy Oram will also compete for playing time.

Along with new players and new strategies, Strunk has also introduced a new training tool to the team called "Survivor Lacrosse."

"We have our teams into smaller units and they compete for a week and get points and then vote someone off of their team," Strunk said. "They're learning parts of the game beyond just passing, catching and shooting it. They have to do more thinking individually and figuring out their role and responsibilities on the field and how those roles affect the team."

With a fun way to learn some of her new strategies and plans, Strunk hopes the team will implement the tools they learn from "Survivor Lacrosse" into the team's ultimate game plan: a new variety to offense and defense.

Along with the defensive options, Strunk also adds offensive plays that can be used strategically during games.

"Mostly, I've brought in more offensive and defensive plays that are more precise and serve a specific purpose in a game situation," she said. "We have a lot of plays that will be used at different times of the game and we have to get used to being aware of that, rather than dealing with whatever happens and relying on situational factors to win games."

After a loss in the PSAC championship game last season, Strunk knows that the team could again compete for the title in 2005.

"We want to compete for a PSAC title and there's no reason we shouldn't," Strunk said. "We have a lot of self-motivation on this team which is very positive."

Though wins and losses are one way to measure success, Strunk has another goal which, if accomplished, she believes could be a contributing factor to a good season.

"We don't want to be outrun by another team," she said. "We're training very hard right now, and even though our numbers are small with only 16 on the roster, we're training so every single person on the team will be able to play an entire game at the top level of competition."

Heading into the season, Strunk has no doubt the team will give the effort that she knows is necessary to win, but hopes they can acquire the necessary rhythm to jumpstart the year and improve to the level at which they want to perform.

"We need to be able to move the ball up the field and have good transition and not rely on just one person to score," she said. "We want a lot of people scoring, and we want to be able to pass the ball down the field and have options. Moving the ball down the field quickly, keeping the ball in the air and really increasing the pace to wear down our opponents will be some of the things we want to accomplish. If we want to win, we have to find that rhythm and work as one unit."