University of Richmond Athletics
High Hopes in 2001
02/27/2001 | Women's Lacrosse
Feb. 27, 2001
The 2001 Richmond women's lacrosse team fields only four seniors but 11 returning starters. With 19 total returning players and a crop of talented freshman, the Spiders look to be a force to reckon with in 2001. Coach Kim Chorosiewski begins her seventh season at the helm and expects great things of her squad this season.
Q: As the season approaches, are you pleased with the progress the team has made thus far?
Coach Chorosiewski: " Overall, things are going very well. We are a young team and we return all but one starter. I think that we are faster, deeper, more experienced and read the game better this year than ever before. During the fall, the players had a chance to learn one another's game and now we have had the opportunity to put some structure to it in the spring."
Q: What are your plans in terms of substitution patterns and playing time this season?
Coach Chorosiewski: "We are so deep at every position that we can rotate people in and out. We plan to get a rotation going, especially at midfield because so many people can play a variety of positions on this team. Plus, you never know what will happen with injuries or illness."
Q: What will be the strengths of this year's team?
Coach Chorosiewski: "It's nice to have all of our offense back. We have a large portion of our team's scoring back from last year. Plus, we welcome back a strong cast of returning players and some freshmen that will have the ability to play right away and probably will play right away."
Q: What are your expectations of this year's team?
Coach Chorosiewski: "We are going to meet about our goals as a team in the very near future. In the (seven) years that I have been at Richmond, this is probably the strongest team we have ever had in place here. However, we have an extremely tough schedule. We open up with Delaware, a top-10 team, on March 4th. We follow up the Blue Hens with two more Top-10 opponents in Virginia and Loyola (a Final Four participant last season). Those three teams will challenge us immediately. I think we will do very well against them and I do have high expectations against all three. 'High expectations' to me means victory. I don't know that we would want to train for anything less than that. Simply showing up and playing well does not work anymore. We need to get some results. I think that we will better the results we had last year with regard to record, output and total effectiveness. But to look into a crystal ball would be impossible at this stage of the season."
Q: Speaking of a demanding schedule ... In addition to the three teams previously mentioned, Richmond's schedule gets even tougher in CAA play.
Coach Chorosiewski: "You can't avoid it because we compete in the strongest region in the country. The south (region) traditionally sends at least six teams to the NCAA Tournament and two teams in our conference (James Madison and Loyola) went to the Final Four last year. Even though this is our last year in the Colonial Athletic Association, we still have to play at that high level."
Q: What will be strengths of this year's team?
Coach Chorosiewski: "I think one of our primary strengths is the leadership of our captains. I think all four captains will put up the best numbers they've had in their career this year. I expect our scoring will be balanced and any player on the field could step up and lead this team at one point or another. Whether they are a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, they are going to have their moment in the sun during the year, whether at practice or during a game. I have high expectations for our upperclassmen and returning players. We expect a lot of our seniors and they expect a lot of everybody else on this team. I think the team is more unified because of that. I don't see that many weaknesses on this team with regard to commitment to the team and full dedication to the team goals. It's an all-or-nothing proposition. If it was anything less than that, they wouldn't be a member of this team. Having said that, we hope to maintain a very good balance throughout this year. Certainly anybody, especially on the offensive end can really put some strong numbers up. Which player scores depends upon what our opponents think about and how they mark us. We have the added benefit of being unpredictable when we have balance."
