 Welcome to the Kathy Rayleigh Show presented by Buffalo Wildlings. I'm Sam Murray joined now with Stevenson women's lacrosse head coach Kathy Rayleigh and coached three games into the season. Base fourth ranked Salisbury, top ranked two-time defending national champion, Gettysburg. And they got a win at Randolph-Macon. What have you learned so far from your team? Well, I think those two opening games are so important. And one of the reasons they're important from the coaching perspective is a very good team is going to expose where your flaws are. So I like to play these opening games, you know, in good years, they're great contests. In rebuilding years, we are able to utilize that information so easily. So instead of beating a team by 10 in your opening game, where you never get to see where the holes in your defense are, you never get to get your defenders a lot of experience so that they can handle more in season, regular in season games. Those games really help us for the coaching for the following week. So it is by design that we play them every year. I don't think we are going to beat a senior heavy team like Randolph-Macon unless we have those two experiences prior to showing up down there. You know, they were the second place team in the ODAC last year and came really close to Washington Lee at the final game of the season. And when they were returning, the majority of their attack, I know, and I should say, I knew that our defense needed to have a lot of practice. And we needed to know who needed work in order to see them and beat them. Talking about experience, you have a lot of freshman on the team. Yes, I do. And a lot of gray hair to prove it. Yes. Well, five of them have their first career point through first three games. Talk about them and talk about, you know, your expectations coming into the season and then through three games. Well, you know, we knew we had a talented freshman class. And talented coming out of high school is very different than how that translates sometimes into the college game. The college game is faster. It's more physical. The conditioning is different. The demands on your body and preseason are different because you're practicing so many more times a week for longer, longer time periods being out, you know, you're not going outside because it's a little cold or a little rainy. So I think that it's a little bit of a shock for them. However, the performance of the freshman, I couldn't be more pleased with how balanced it is, how unselfish they are. They enjoy great playmaking on the offense event. On the defense event, you know, I will say that Kirsten Foster has been one of the key reasons we have gone from about a 75% clear percentage closer to that 90% clear percentage. Because she's not afraid to get the ball and to just take it outfield herself at full speed, great vision. She sees the attackers. She's just not afraid. And that makes a huge difference when you're coming in your first college games and gosh, you know, just to see that confidence so early in the season makes me excited for the next four years. And then talking about your returners, Carly Goals, she's expected to score goals, has seven already this season, Lindsay Sype, two goals, three assists, Dana Stevens, four goals and an assist. And then on the defense event, Sarah Rorty, Gabby DeGello, they're putting out numbers. Is there someone who hasn't kind of broke through yet through the first three games who you're going to need to lean on, you know, down the stretch of the season? Sure. I think we have a handful of freshmen that I think are capable of scoring multiple goals a game. So let me start there before we get to the upperclassmen. Caitlin Kozowski, Hanna Huff, Lonley Crowdy. I think the three of those could really explode in the next two or three games as their confidence gets a little bit better, their speed gets a little bit better. I'd really like to see the three of them on the board way more often. Caroline Murphy already on the board on a regular basis. She's doing fantastic. Want to see those others come along in that way. As far as returners goes, couldn't be happier with what I'm seeing out of those returners. You know, I want to attribute that to their hard work out of season. I think we have a handful of returners that look physically like different people in the 18-19 season than they did in the 17-18 season. So they've taken their fitness seriously, and it's been so great to have made that connection in the past and say, you just get faster, just get fitter, just get stronger, and you'll start to see the results. And to have that actually happen is validating for me as a coach, and I think it's so validating that their hard work is paying off for things. Sarah, Gabby, Amanda, back on that defensive end, Matt, just to have that experience back there, but now we're stronger, faster, fitter back there than we were a year ago. So, holding teams, especially when the conference under that tent is what our goal is going to be, because we think we can accomplish that. And then moving forward, the schedule really doesn't get all too much easier. You know, you play Montclair State, Geneseo, who it's always been a low scoring affair with the two of you, and then Mary Washington, who's climbed their way up to the number two team in the country. Yeah, right. Well, I like to schedule games that are going to be battles. I enjoy the battle, you know, our regular season games. There's all kinds of levels within our conference. So, when I schedule out of conference, I'd like to schedule the very best matchups that I can. We've already seen Mary Washington in a scrimmage scenario, very talented. They've got a couple of transfers that are really dominating for them right now. We're going to be as ready as we can be. Montclair is always a battle. I think every year we play them, it's a one-to-two goal game in either direction. So, it's always battle. No, not for a very long time. What was the other one? So, Geneseo, crazy zone. But I think we have the offense this year to beat that. Much more confident offense in the past. When we've played them, we've kind of shied away from taking them one-on-one in their zone. And I just don't see that happening. I think that we have a real good shot to get a great out of conference win there. Well, Coach, we wish you the best of luck in the upcoming games, and we'll see you back here soon. Thank you very much. For Head Coach Kathy Rayleigh, I'm Sam Murray, and this has been the Kathy Rayleigh Show.