Lacrosse returns after successful seasons

   Chapman's women's lacrosse team begins its pursuit of a second straight national championship this weekend as the men's lacrosse team seeks to best its quarterfinal appearance last season.

   The women will play their first season as a Division I club team after finishing undefeated last season in Division II.

   "Last year, we had a lot of games that were blowouts," said Head Coach Brian Eisenberg. "This year, we don't have any games that we can take lightly."

   The Panthers lost two starters from last season, but will return junior goalie and team captain Anjali Thota and pick up midfielder Tory Wilkinson, a sophomore transfer from University of Louisville. Wilkinson brings experience from a Division I school, Eisenberg said.

   Despite its statistical success on paper, the team's weakness last season was inexperience. The team returns mostly sophomores to defend its title.

   "We have a lot of sophomores with great experience from last year," Eisenberg said. "We have such a young team in general and all our starters have had to do equal shares of leadership."

   The team will be successful again if it can stay healthy, Thota said.

   "Our biggest struggle was with injuries," she said. "We had at least four players injured during Nationals."

   Aside from scrimmaging during Interterm, the women have focused primarily on conditioning to prepare for the season, said Gabby David, team captain and senior defender.

   Chapman's men's lacrosse seeks to claim its fourth league title in five years and surpass its playoff run last year in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) National Tournament.

   "We didn't get as far in Nationals as we would've liked to," said Head Coach Dallas Hartley. "We were feeling good after the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference championship and ran into a hot goalie at Arizona State University."

   Entering his second season as head coach, Hartley thinks he could have done a better job to prepare the team last season.

   "These guys were so good before I got here," Hartley said. "We had some really good individual players and I don't think I did a good enough job to create an offensive unit."

   The team's biggest weakness this season will again be inexperience, but its strength will be its roster depth. The team returns two senior First Team All-Americans, long stick midfielder Matt Walrath and midfielder Justin Shields, and picks up midfielder Hap Knowles, a junior transfer from University of Colorado at Boulder who was 2011 defensive player of the year in his conference.

   "We were playing a lot of freshmen in key positions," Hartley said. "The experience our sophomore class had last year and the veteran leadership of the guys coming back is a good combination."

   Consistency and chemistry will be keys to the team's success this season, said sophomore midfielder A.J. Rafter.

   "We got into slumps sometimes or we pushed the issue too much," Rafter said.

   Men's lacrosse begins its quest for its first national championship 7 p.m. Friday at Wilson Field against University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Women's lacrosse seeks to repeat beginning 3 p.m. Saturday at University of San Diego.