May 2, 2007

by Jac Coyne, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

Of all the seasons, Jenn Van Ness had to miss last season.

It had to be the same year that the Eastern University women's lacrosse finally snapped Cabrini's seven-year string of league championships, earning the Eagles their first trip to the NCAA tournament. It had to be the spring when Van Ness, then a junior, had to complete an off-campus internship in order to continue her quest to become a certified athletic trainer.

For those, like Van Ness, who hope to enter the athletic training field after graduation, subjugating extracurriculars to satisfy the mandatory curriculum is a fact of life. The requirements are not set at the institutional level, but rather at the national layer by the umbrella organization regulating the field.

As she matriculated at Eastern, Van Ness was well aware of the effect it would have on her lacrosse career. Having earned much success as a goalie at Lenape High School in Medford, N.J., Van Ness was eager to apply her lacrosse skills at the collegiate level, if only in a part-time capacity.

"I knew coming in that I would get at least two years of playing lacrosse and when I met with my coaches and they understood that," said Van Ness. "They understood that athletic training always came first. They knew as much as I loved lacrosse, athletic training was going to be my life. It's going to my career and I really had to focus on that."

During her freshman spring, Van Ness helped Eastern get within one goal of the conference title and that was followed by a sophomore year in which she was limited to live action. "That was kind of hard because I would basically show up for the game without any practice," she said.

And then last year, with the Eagles rolling through the PAC and toward the coveted NCAA bid, Van Ness had to put down her stick altogether. After working at internship with the Villanova football team in the fall, Van Ness had to shuffle off to nearby Conestoga High School every afternoon to work in the training room while her former teammates took to the practice field.

"It was frustrating," she admitted. "But I was really excited for them and it makes me want it so much more this year."

Van Ness' availability for women's lacrosse was somewhat up in the air heading into the spring, but her professors helped her out. With a lone month-long rotation remaining to be fulfilled, the athletic training program staff at Eastern allowed Van Ness to go first in the rotation, freeing up the latter part of the semester for lacrosse.

Camrin Azzarano, the Eagles head coach, quickly welcomed Van Ness back into the fold. The coach understood that the goalie's decision to put lacrosse on the back-burner was out of her hands.

"There wasn't anything she could have done differently academically," said Azzarano. "Knowing Jenn's commitment to the athletic training program, we looked at it as a real gift that she was able to come back and be with us this year."

The return of Van Ness has been a boon for Eastern. Azzarano said she has been the difference in huge non-conference wins over Rowan and Lycoming, as well as the top end of the PAC. On Saturday, it is almost a certainty that the Eagles will face Cabrini once again in the conference crown.

"I really, really want to beat Cabrini and have a championship under my belt," said Van Ness.

Playing for a title is something Van Ness has been looking forward to for a full year, and it is also providing a convenient distraction. Van Ness took her athletic training certification test last week - a rigorous three-part exam - and she was told the results would be sent in the next two weeks.

Van Ness said she checks her email five times a day in hopes of receiving the good word. However, she puts her future career out of mind while mending the net for the Eagles.

That way she won't miss a thing.

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The Scoop's Coach of the Year

Babson College, and the NEWMAC for that matter, has never been a major player in its own region, never mind nationally. This season, the Beavers are changing all that.

Babson has rolled to a 15-2 record, is currently ranked seventh in the country, and has posted impressive wins over No. 10 Amherst, No. 13 Wesleyan and No. 19 Tufts. There is even a decent chance Babson Park could be the site of a regional when the Division III NCAA tournament field is announced Sunday.

Babson's emergence as snarling Doberman in the dog-eat-dog world of New England D-III women's lacrosse is why Kully Reardon is my pick for 2007 Small College Coach of the Year.

When you take into account just what she had to work with when she arrived six years ago, Reardon's ability to direct the Beavers to their first-ever tourney appearance is more impressive.

"When I first came in here, I grabbed some players from the field hockey and soccer teams and convinced them that they should play lacrosse," said Reardon. "After my first two years, I got in my first recruiting class, and that started the ball rolling."

Babson, one of the finest business schools in the country, hasn't typically been able to draw the same level of talent as many of the top liberal arts schools in the region, but Reardon has used hard work and an irresistible personality to draw local kids who want to stay in the Greater Boston area.

"To be honest, it's been really hard," admitted Reardon. "Taking the personal time to talk to these kids all year long has made a huge difference when I'm recruiting them."

Reardon's success comes as little surprise to Missy Foote, Reardon's coach and mentor at Middlebury back when she was known as Kully Hagerman.

"When she recruits, I'm sure players say, 'I would love to play for this coach,' because you just want to hug her," said Foote, whose Middlebury squad will also be in the NCAAs. "When you are in a room with a lot of people, you want to spend time with her, and I'm sure her recruits think that.

"Kully always wanted to be coached, and she always paid attention to the little details. I knew she would be a good coach, because she had that eye for it. She wanted it for herself, as well as absorbing it and thinking about it from a coaching point of view as a player."

The win over Amherst, a likely tournament team, should provide the Beavers plenty of confidence and could be the reason they host a regional.

"That would be out of control," said Reardon. "My worry is that this is so new to them. I think they understand the magnitude of it, but I think their jaws would just drop when they realize how big a deal this really is."

Babson is fortunate to have the Coach of the Year to help guide them.

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D-III Conference Tournaments

As selection Sunday fast approaches, it is sometimes easy to lose track of all the different conference races. Here's a quick recap of the auto-qualifying conferences in D-III.

Capital: The CAC was supposed to be wrapped up last Friday, but the championship game between Salisbury and Mary Washington has been pushed back until May 5. The Gulls are still favored to win the title, but the Eagles will be in the at-large hunt.
Centennial: Franklin & Marshall not only solidified its hold on the top ranking, but let Gettysburg know who's boss with a 14-4 win over the Bullets in the Centennial title game on Sunday. The 'Burg is still in the tourney, though.
Commonwealth Coast: The quarterfinals kicked off yesterday; semis and finals this weekend. Gordon looks to be the frontrunner.
Empire 8: Defending E-8 champ Nazareth hosts the semifinals and finals Saturday and Sunday. It will be Naz versus RIT in one semifinal, while St. John Fisher battles Ithaca in the other. The Golden Flyers are heavy faves.
Liberty: Hamilton hosts the conference tourney on Friday and Saturday. The Continentals will entertain Vassar for one spot in the finals, and the winner will face the victor of the Union-William Smith dual.
Little East: The quarterfinals kicked off yesterday, and the automatic qualifier will be won this weekend. Eastern Connecticut and Plymouth State are the top two seeds and earned byes into the semis, which are Thursday.
MAC: The quarters commenced yesterday, the semis will be on Thursday and the championship on Saturday. Elizabethtown and Drew received byes through the semis as the two top seeds.
NESCAC: Middlebury faces Williams and Amherst plays Colby in Saturday's semifinals at Middlebury. The seventh-seeded Ephs bounced second-seeded Trinity in the biggest quarterfinal surprise. Championship is on Sunday.
NEWMAC: Babson edged Wellesley in the championship game on Sunday, as the Beavers earned their first-ever trip to the Big Dance.
NEWLA: Defending champ Western New England and Worcester State meet on Saturday in a rematch of last year's championship game. WNEC won the regular season game by six.
NCAC: Ohio Wesleyan earned the top seed after winning tiebreakers with second-seeded Denison and third-seeded Wooster. The Bishops will face Kenyon in Friday's semis. Championship game is on Saturday.
ODAC: Washington and Lee won its fifth straight conference crown Sunday with a comfortable win over Roanoke.
PAC: Barring an earth-shattering upset today, Eastern will play at Cabrini on Saturday for the automatic qualifier.
SUNYAC: There is still some regular season action left, but it is a near certainty that Cortland will host the semifinals and finals on Friday and Saturday. Brockport and Geneseo will likely be joining the Red Dragons, but the fourth seed is in play.
USA South: This has to be the least satisfying tournament championship, as the April 15 title game was canceled due to "wet grounds," according to the USA South Web site. Christopher Newport was awarded the automatic qualifier because of its regular season win over Greensboro.

If you're wondering about Division II, the field is pretty much locked in: Stonehill and C.W. Post in the North and Lock Haven and West Chester in the South.

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Slides & Rides

Middlebury head coach Missy Foote has been a long-time member of the NCAA D-III committee, but not this year. Considering the difficult decisions ahead - especially in Pool C - that's just fine with her. "I keep telling my friends that are on the committee that I am so glad I'm not on it," said Foote. "It must be so hard." It was tough for Foote, who admits to not following other teams as much as when she was on the committee, to get a concrete read on her own conference, the NESCAC. She did say she thought her league deserved two at-larges in addition to the AQ...Top-ranked Franklin and Marshall appears to be getting stronger. After cruising past Gettysburg in the season finale, the Dips dominated the Bullets in the Centennial title game, 14-4. The game was over at halftime, as F&M outshot Gettysburg, 20-8, and caused 15 turnovers en route to a 10-1 edge at the break...While Eastern goalie Jenn Van Ness is a big part of the Eagles' success, they are also getting some huge numbers out of two offensive players. Jessie Basch (52g, 51a) and Kate Hoy (73g, 28a) are a nasty one-two punch...In what is sure to be a preview of one of the NCAA D-II semifinals, C.W. Post took down Stonehill, 7-5...Another quick Jaclyn Godfrey update. Our fearless Babson player sacrificed three of her teeth earlier this season against MIT. On a move to the cage, Godfrey's lower jaw ran smack into the face guard of an MIT player, knocking out a tooth and chipping two others. Not surprisingly, she's back on the field for the Beavers.

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Have an idea for the Small College Scoop? Email Jac Coyne.