While the women’s lacrosse team was expected to win by a large margin in their season opener of Jacksonville, who was playing their inaugural game in the sport, they did answer many questions in the 18-2 victory.

Last season the team came just won win away from a spot in the America East Conference tournament, but since then the team that ranked fourth in the conference with 11.71 goals per game lost 31% of their offense, highlighted with losses of Kara Dorr (40 goals), and Abbey Swift (20 goals). With the team only returning 8.0 goals per game, the question coming into the season was who could step up and improve the offense?

Juniors Amanda Pappas (28 goals in 2009) and Ashley Stodter (25 goals), and sophomore Emily Coady (22 goals) seemed like top candidates for the job coming into the season, but just how much could they add to their totals when defenses were now keying on them?

But even though the team was facing a Jacksonville team that had never played a women’s lacrosse game prior, and was filled with freshman, most of whom were no even marginally sought after by colleges, the Retriever got a good glimpse of who could potentially step up under new coach Kelly Berger.

Pappas, Stodter, and Coady combined for seven goals but Erika Braerman and Kristen Milligan could be the two keys for the offense stepping up this season. Braerman, who only scored nine goals last season, nearly halved that total in just one game with four. Milligan missed 11 games last season but still only managed one goal in six games. Against Jacksonville she was one of three players to score hat-tricks. Her move from a primarily defensive role to an offensive role could be a pleasant addition to the team.

But one of the big additions on the team could be Alicia Krause, a transfer from Duquesne who scored 20 goals as a freshman with the Dukes. In her debut at UMBC he scored twice while starting at attack.

Those goal totals will likely go down as the team faces tougher competition as the season goes on, but all of them showed an improvement in finishing and ball placement, which is why the win shows promise as both of those abilities speaks to what the player can do, not what defense can limit a player to do.

While the defense finished third in the conference last season after allowing less than 10 goals per game, senior Sarah Willis, a second-team all-conference defender, and C.J. Durham, welcomes two new faces to the starting unit, sophomore transfer from Hofstra, Lauren Mundell, and freshman Jamie Fahey. While allowing just two goals could mean poor fundamentals or finishing by the offense, the fact that Jacksonville was only allowed six shots on goals speaks to the defense.

The bigger test may be next weekend when the team travels to George Mason, but the team picked to finish fifth in the America East Conference showed that they may have what it takes to be a bit of a surprise this season.

Comments can be sent to cjohns2@umbc.edu.