Bentley Opens 2022 Season Saturday at Southern Connecticut
WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley women's lacrosse team gets its 2022 season underway on Saturday when they visit Northeast-10 rival Southern Connecticut State. The game is scheduled to get underway at 1:00 pm and can be seen on NE10 NOW.
The Falcons are the defending NE10 champions after they defeated Adelphi 9-8 in the finals last May for the program's first conference championship. They were then selected to the NCAA Tournament for the first time and advanced to the East Region finals before they finally fell to Roberts Wesleyan. They finished the season with a 12-3 record and also claimed the NE10 Northeast Division regular season title.
The club will get their defense of the NE10 title underway early with the season's first game at Southern Connecticut. The Owls already began their season on Wednesday with a close 14-12 defeat to Molloy.
After Saturday's game the Falcons won't play again for two weeks, but when they return it will be for their home opener on Saturday, March 12 against American Int'l.
Two non-conference games follow, home against Molly on March 16 and away to Mercy on March 19, and then it's full-bore into the conference schedule starting on March 22 against Assumption.
The Falcons are led by fifth year head coach Taylor Bastien, a 2013 graduate of Bentley and the program's third all-time leader in career points with 220. Bastien will lead a group that returns 24 players from last season's team.
The 2022 Falcons are captained by a quartet of seniors, Caroline Boudreau (Foxborough, Mass./Foxborough), Christine Fish (Slingerlands, N.Y./Guilderland), Glenna Gies (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) and Kayli Keenan (Pelham, N.H./Bishop Guertin).
Two key seniors from last season's team return for their graduate year, midfielder Cara McCarthy (Salem, N.H./Central Catholic) and attacker Sandrine Heller (Weggis, Switzerland). McCarthy was named third team All-NE10 and second team All-East Region after she scored 19 goals and led the team with 49 draw controls.
Heller led the team with 15 assists, which was tied for 7th most in the NE10.
Bentley's leading returning scorer is sophomore Caroline Affolter (Newburyport, Mass./Central Catholic). She was second on the team in 2021 with 21 goals and 24 points and was named to the NE10 All-Rookie team.
All-American goalie Eliza Bresler graduated, and her shoes will be filled by junior Maya Rose (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) and freshman Ashlee Wargo (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand).
The Falcons were ranked 16th in the preseason IWLCA Division II poll.
All NE10 games and non-conference home games will streamed live on the NE10 Now Digital Network.
The full 2022 schedule can be found at the link below: