Confidence. Strength. Positivity. Enthusiasm. These are just a few words that can be used to describe the first ever women’s lacrosse team at Pace.

Snow storms and icy weather haven’t stopped this team from giving it all they have as they prepare for the beginning of their season, with their first game on Sat., Mar. 7 against Nyack College.

Head Coach Michael Spinner acknowledges that it hasn’t been easy, but the team has no excuses. In fact, on Fri. Feb 6 the team went out to practice despite the foot of snow outside, after many practices cooped up in the gym.

“The weather has been challenging, holding practices at the gym, but we’ve been focusing on controlling what we can control,” Spinner said. “What we can control is our attitude, our effort and how hard we play, and the girls have been doing just that. It’s just practice but you can feel the intensity.”

While the team might be smaller in numbers, they make up for it with talent. Spinner mentions that while more established teams will usually be relying on one or two players to carry the team, his team is much more balanced, believing that he has six or seven girls who could be the leading scorers in the game at any time.

“We have much better balance, we don’t have to lean on one player. Most of the girls can handle their own,” Spinner said. “It provides us with a great foundation to build upon for the future.”

Diverse talent means that each member of the team brings something different to the table, and team captains Casey Gelderman, Angela Kelly, and Emily Ankabrandt do just that with their complementing skillsets.

For Gelderman, it is leading by example and priding herself in being open, encouraging her teammates to ask questions when needed. Kelly brings confidence to the other players and notes it is important to let that “captain-ness” get to their heads. Finally, Ankabrandt brings some speed along with positivity.

“The thing about the three of us is we are not overpowering,” said Ankabrandt, a biology major. “We are pretty welcoming and open. We are always looking for advice from the other girls as well, or rather constructive criticism.”

Spinner gives all the credit to the girls for their enthusiasm and hard work, which has allowed for this foundation to come together nicely, stating that the team is further along than he would have envisioned a year ago.

While Spinner notes that tactically speaking there are no glaring weaknesses with the team, the tough schedule along with the threat of injuries become a concern.

Seven of the top 20 women’s lacrosse teams in the nation just happen to be in the NE-10 Conference, proving to be quite the challenge for the Setters.

“It’s definitely hard to overcome that [tough schedule], but I think we as a team are pretty confident that we will be successful as we continue to build the program,” Spinner said. “We are going to give it our best shot. We’ll have a game plan for each opponent. We do have an advantage in that we start a week later so we’ll be able to have footage on our first opponent, but they won’t have seen us.”

While there is more pressure on those established teams in the conference not to lose to a first year program, the team captains do know that with the underdog labeling comes a certain negativity as well.

“Being a first year team, you know that expectations from the outside might not be that high,” said Gelderman, who is also majoring in biology. “But we have nothing to lose. We know that if we are all confident, we can prove everyone wrong. We’re trying to make history as well with this program we are creating. We want to show the rest of the school how hard we are working.”

Aside from the schedule, the mere fact that the team has 20 girls as opposed to the normal 25-30 makes injuries become a greater concern.

“Injuries certainly become a much bigger concern than they would normally be for us,” said Spinner, who noted that two of the players are already a little ‘dinged up.’ “The key for us is to not let small injuries become bigger. Conditioning is huge. If we need to give someone an extra day’s rest to make sure that they don’t get worse, then we’ll do that. Being year one you don’t want to see people get hurt, but it’s inevitable.”

Gelderman says that mental toughness and positivity are the ingredients for successful outcomes.

Ankabrandt adds that it’s not about wins or losses, it’s about taking something away each game in order to adjust and grow.

“We have everything to gain, and nothing to lose,” Kelly said.