Jenn Zinka
Equinox Staff
Coach Katie Arsenault has made her mark on the women’s lacrosse program here at Keene State College.
The victory on April 21, against UMass Dartmouth was Arsenault’s fiftieth win. This win placed her at the top of the women’s lacrosse all-time win leader board.
This surpassed previous record holder Emily Johnston who held the record with 49 wins. Johnston was the head coach for the Owls from 2002 until 2006.
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Katie Arsenault has been the coach for the Owls since 2009. Her record is 50-22 since she became the head coach of the women’s lacrosse program.
Setting a record in a program is a big achievement for a coach. Arsenault feels proud but gives most of the credit elsewhere.
“It feels good. I mean, it’s really most of their [the players] doing, with this team and the team before that. But it feels good to feel like you’re actually putting a stamp on the program,” Arsenault said.
The players feel good about being a part of the team that helped their coach reach this achievement.
Junior midfielder Nicole Curry said, “It’s a great accomplishment for the team to know that. For the three seniors, it’s their fiftieth win as well because they started with her their freshman year. So it’s great to be on a team where it’s her first record of 50 wins.” Sophomore goalie Libby Curran agreed. “I’m really happy for her and I’m glad that I could be a part of the team that could do that,” Curran said.
The Owls have continued to play well since reaching that goal. This season, they are 13-3 overall, 4-1 in the conference, and undefeated at home 6-0. The 50 wins is a good motivator for the team.
“We just want to continue on that streak of winning games, because we’re going into playoffs now and we want to get the LEC championship for the second year in a row,” Curry said.
The Owls sit second in the LEC conference right behind Plymouth State University. PSU is one of the team’s biggest rivals.
Earlier in the season, the Owls fell short of a win over PSU, losing 16-13. If they meet again in the tournament, the Owls plan to do things differently.
“We had 14 more shots than them and we didn’t put it behind the goalie. We just have to take better care of our shots,” Coach Arsenault said.
Curry added, “If we see them again, I think it’s going to just make us more motivated to beat them in the tournament. We want to show them that we shouldn’t have lost the first time.”
Last year, the team won the LEC championship against Western Connecticut. After losing eight seniors at the end of last season, this year’s team has a completely new dynamic. The team only has three seniors and 15 out of the 28 on the roster are underclassmen.
“I feel like we have a really young team this year because we only have three seniors. But it’s completely different from last year, and I feel like we all really get along well. Also, we work well and communicate well on the field,” Curran said.
Curry added that this year is much different from past years for many reasons. “I think this season, everyone works together ten times better than past years. We all like each other a lot,” she said.
The Owls have now finished the regular season and will play the winner of the third seeded team, Eastern Connecticut, and the sixth team, Rhode Island College.
Both Curry and Curran agreed that they wish to have the same outcome as last year when all is said and done
For now the team is preparing for the tournament. “We’re preparing by just continuing practicing on our different skills, working with offense and defense separately to prepare because anything can happen. We need to be prepared for anything,” Curry said.
Arsenault said, “You need people who are going to play because it’s all they’ve got and that’s all they’ve got left. We need everyone from the freshmen to the seniors to play like that in order to pull this one out.”
The team will be playing in the first round of the tournament on Friday, May 4.
Jenn Zinka can be contacted at
jzinka@keene-equinox.com