Zulty Emerges from Tribe's Early-Season 'Gauntlet'
by Chris R. Vaccaro | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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William & Mary captain Mary Zulty has five hat tricks in seven games, helping the Tribe prepare for another unpredictable CAA campaign. © Jim Agnew |
Take a look at the schedule for William & Mary women's
lacrosse, and it looks like a nationally ranked basketball
team’s set of games. There aren’t many collegiate
lacrosse teams in the land that play Duke, Virginia Tech, Virginia,
Ohio State, Navy, Boston University, California and Penn State in
one decade, let alone in the opening month of a season.
Through the firestorm, the 18th -anked Tribe (4-3) has held its
own, beating OSU by a narrow margin to open the season, beating
Oregon by another slim margin and beating Navy and Virginia Tech
soundly.
“I’ve set up what you call a gauntlet,” said Tribe coach Christine Halfpenny about the difficult grind to open the season. “It’s an enormous opportunity to prepare for our conference. Playing top-level competition is going to make your team better, and our goal is to be playing in May.”
The Tribe was the regular season Colonial Athletic Association champion the last two seasons, but winning the conference tournament and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament is what really matters for Halfpenny and her squad.
“Preparing for that makes every day important,” she said. “We’re getting a number of different looks and putting the time and effort into being prepared for defenses and offenses that top-15 teams are going to throw at us."
With the high-level play this year has come the emergence of
senior captain Mary Zulty, who has recorded five hat tricks in the
first seven games (19 total goals). She’s no stranger to
scoring, having notched 25 and 39 points during her sophomore and
junior seasons, respectively, but this year she’s performing
on a new level.
During the offseason, Zulty had a stick in her hand quite often,
playing wall ball and focusing on shooting with both her left and
right hands.
“I want to win,” Zulty said, “so I can always improve on my shooting.”
Added Halfpenny, “She probably has one of the best set of hands that I’ve seen in a long time. She is spectacular when she is moving her feet and using her quick hands. She’s one of the toughest kids to mark, and she is the pulse of our team.”
Halfpenny knows it’s a chore winning three straight CAA regular season titles, and even more so with teams like Hofstra, Drexel and James Madison playing just as much well as the Tribe right now.
“I dare to say that we’re the toughest conference top to bottom,” Halfpenny said. “I’ve coached in the Ivy League, the Big East and the ACC, and I can say there isn’t one give-me game in our conference.”
The Tribe’s offense has dealt with some setbacks this season, mainly Maggie Anderson’s ACL injury and Katie Reese, who has been banged up for a while. As a result of the early-season abyss of challenging games and injuries, Halfpenny has juggled her personnel almost every game this year.
“We need to put our complete game together,” Zulty said. “Both our [offense and defense] are really strong -- we just need to put a complete 60 minutes together.”
The Tribe hosts California Wednesday at 7 p.m.
CAA Women’s Lacrosse Notes
James Madison lost for the first time this year
when Loyola beat the Dukes, 12-8, this past weekend…
Towson’s Hillary Fratzke was named CAA
Co-Player of the Week after leading the Tigers to a win and scoring
nine goals and winning 11 draw controls. She has scored a goal in
54 straight games… Hofstra’s Corrine
Gandolfi added another six points to her season totals
after the Pride beat Stony Brook, 17-7, last weekend. She scored
five goals and added one assist, giving her 20 goals and eight
assists so far this year… Madalyn Jamison
had six points in George Mason’s 9-7 loss to
Colgate… Ashley Kellogg scored a
season-high five goals in Old Dominion’s
14-9 win over St. Joseph’s.
