Pace University’s women’s lacrosse team now heads into their 12 Northeast-10 Conference matchups with a 3-1 record, and one of the best resumes of any team in the nation bar none.

The #6 nationally-ranked Setters concluded the non-conference portion of their season with a resounding 19-8 win over #4 Tampa.

This marks the second time in less than two weeks that Pace has utterly dominated one of the best teams in the country on the road, having previously defeated #1 ranked East Stroudsburg, 16-6, on March 6. The Setters then dropped a close one at #2 Florida Southern, 14-12.

It can no longer be denied that the Blue & Gold are without a doubt a legitimate contender for not only the NE10 Championship but for the National Championship as well.

When you not only beat but destroy the #1 and #4 ranked teams in the country on their own fields, and barely lose to #2 on theirs, it means you’ve got something special.

The two big wins may seem like upsets, but hindsight suggests they were not. In both games, the Setters executed excellently at all levels of the field, and made two very good teams look like very bad teams.

Pace outshot the two perennial powerhouses by a combined 77-32, including 62-24 in shots-on-goal, and almost doubled up both teams in draw controls, while only turning the ball over a combined 22 times to East Stroudsburg and Tampa’s 44 combined turnovers.

Nine different Pace players scored against Tampa, the second time this season that many Setters scored in one game.

After being blanked against Florida Southern, Emma Rafferty went off for five goals. Aleya Corretjer handed out a team-high three assists and scored two of her own. Kayla Conway scored a hat trick to go along with an assist. Jolie Urraro also scored a trifecta. Sydney Juvelier scored a pair with an assist. Inversely, Angelina Porcello dished a pair and scored one while leading the team in ground balls (5) and also winning a ridiculous 13 draw controls. No Tampa player could muster more than two face-offs wins against the junior.

What makes what this team is doing even more impressive is that they have done it all on the road.

Pace has yet to play a game on their home field, and will continue to do so, next traveling to Albany, New York, on Saturday to face the College of Saint Rose in the NE10 opener.

With #5 Le Moyne losing on Wednesday night to #3 West Chester, if the Setters take care of business against Saint Rose on Saturday, they will be ranked at least #4 in next Monday’s IWLCA Poll of the best teams in America.

This team just does everything really well.

The offense is explosive, with a multitude of players to worry about. They don’t squander opportunities. They’re efficient, ruthless, and lethal in the open field and on counterattacks. They don’t commit a lot of fouls, and hardly turn the ball over. They kill it in the face-offs and dominate ball possession. The defense is cold-blooded, smothering and intimidating. The goalies hardly have much to do in fact.

This is a team that plays with huge a chip on its shoulder, as if their preseason ranking was an insult, and they are now hungry and eager to prove everyone wrong.

Pace University athletic squads just do not win NE10 or National Tournament Championships.

Since the year 2000, only one Pace team has won an NE10 conference tournament, and that was Softball in 2016. That’s one title in 23 years for the entire school. No Pace team has ever won a NCAA crown.

If ever a team came around that looked like it could change that abysmal history, it may well be this women’s lacrosse squad.

In fact, the NE10 may just be the appetizer for an even more prestigious trophy a few weeks after that.