Santa Clara's Shaw Finds New Ways to Contribute
by David Ely | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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Santa Clara midfielder Krista Shaw leads the Broncos with 18 goals in six games, but she has had to adjust to added defensive pressure. © Dirk Dewachter |
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Things are a little
bit tougher for Santa Clara's Krista Shaw this season.
Opposing defenses are coming up with more and more ways to get the
ball out of her stick. On other occasions, they simply try to take
her out of the Broncos' offensive sets.
But that's to be expected when you enter the season as Lacrosse
Magazine's WDIA Preseason Player of the Year. You're not going to
be able to anonymously patrol the box anymore, and Shaw has done
her best so far this season to adapt to the style teams deploy
against her.
"She's hustling. She's playing her role," Santa Clara coach
Brendan O'Brien said during last weekend's Santa Barbara
Shootout.
"She's getting a lot of double teams, she's getting a lot of
shutoffs. She's still about to get two or three goals a game. She's
not the goal scorer right now because she's getting shutoff so
much, but it's opening things up for other people."
That was the case during the Broncos' 12-6 win over No. 8 Colorado
State -- Santa Clara's final match during the highly competitive
Shootout.
Shaw scored the game's first goal, but didn't find the back of the
cage for the rest of the game.
Sometimes for players that are used to piling up prolific stats,
it can be frustrating to see other teams isolate their defensive
strategies on them.
But Shaw instead assumed the role of team point guard during the
second half. She controlled possession along the top of the box and
let her open teammates extend the Broncos' lead.
"I've gotten face guarded in a couple of games, but luckily I've
got a team that can score," Shaw said. "So when I'm face guarded,
someone else scores for us.
"I try to get it to other players in the middle that can score.
If I'm getting shut off at the top, I just try to get low because I
know my attack can score."
Santa Clara boasts four players with more than 10 goals through
six games. Shaw leads the team with 18. Gracie Binder, Maria
Pestana and Maggie Burke have posted 15, 12 and 11 goals,
respectively.
The fact that the Broncos have so many capable goal scorers allows
Shaw to play within the Santa Clara offense and not feel the need
to take games on her own.
"She's doing her role," O'Brien said. "She's not trying to force
it."
And then there's that little issue of being named the preseason
player of the year.
Asked f the early accolade has changed anything for her this
season, Shaw replied, "No. It really hasn't. Our coach always says
those things don't really mean anything. You've got to try to prove
it on the field."
The way the Broncos have started the season -- 6-0 with wins over
two ranked teams -- it looks like Shaw is on her way to doing just
that.
"We're playing really well," she said. "We're really coming
together. We have seven starting seniors and a really good group of
freshman coming off the bench."
WDIA News & Notes
It was a rough weekend for Michigan lacrosse at the Santa Barbara
Shootout. The Wolverines, ranked No. 5 in LM's preseason poll, lost
all four of their games, and coach Jen Dunbar called the experience
"very frustrating." Fortunately for Michigan, the season is still
very young, and Dunbar said the problems were essentially
fundamental and fixable... Florida experienced two drastically
different days of competition at the Shootout. The Gators opened
with a 10-9 overtime victory over Colorado State, and then bested
BYU 8-6 hours later. But on Saturday, the Gators lost both of their
games, 9-8 to UC Santa Barbara and 13-7 to UCLA... No. 1-ranked
Virginia Tech Club will begin its season Saturday with two MAWLL
matches. The Hokies host Maryland Club and JMU Club.
