It was a season of highs and lows for the Drexel University women’s lacrosse team.
Coming into the season, the Dragons were under the command of new Head Coach Jill Batcheller. Batcheller had been the head coach at Bryant University for six years and led the Bulldogs to the Northeast Conference title three times.
Batcheller’s first season in University City didn’t have that sweet of an ending though. The Dragons lost their season opener to John Hopkins University, 17-9, then rebounded to gain their first win of the season against Iona University. After a 16-5 loss to No. 20 Georgetown University, the team defeated Rutgers University, 18-12, to get back to .500.
However, close losses to the University Pennsylvania and Villanova University put the team back under .500. The Dragons responded by going on a three-game win streak, their longest of the season.
The Dragons defeated the Manhattan University Jaspers, 13-7, to start the streak. Their win stopped a six-game winning streak for the Jaspers. Sophomore Karson Harris was key for the Dragons on the day, scoring a career-high five goals in the matchup.
Drexel then took advantage of a slacking University of Maryland Baltimore County team, who had lost five straight, to earn a 10-6 victory. The run was capped off by a 22-4 rout of the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils. In the blowout, eight Dragons scored at least a pair of goals, with junior Jamie Schneidereith scoring four on her own.
But after this run, Drexel had some of their worst struggles of the season, right as they were entering Colonial Athletic Association play. The team lost five of their next six games, with their only win coming from a 15-13 victory against the College of William and Mary Tribe.
Drexel still had a slim chance of making the playoffs going into the final weekend of play, but a 19-11 loss to the Hofstra University Pride sealed their fate. In that game, CAA Player of the Year, junior Alyssa Parrella, scored her 82nd goal of the season, breaking the record for most goals in a season.
But despite missing out on the playoffs, the team had some strong individual performances that deserve to be recognized and even some that broke into the record books.
The most notable of these performances was by Harris. Harris, who was First-Team All-CAA, had a record-breaking year for the Dragons in a season where she scored 35 goals and totaled 52 points. Harris broke records for the Dragons for her proficiency at winning draws.
Harris set a single-game record in the win against William and Mary, securing 12 draws in the game. Then later on in a match against Delaware, Harris set the single-season record with her 74th of the season. She ended the season with 90 total draw controls.
Another key contributor for the Dragons was sophomore Colleen Grady. Grady, the reigning CAA Rookie of the Year, led the Dragons in points with 54 while scoring 35 goals. For her efforts, she was also named First Team All-CAA.
Two other Dragons recognized by the CAA were Jamie Schneidereith and Claire Jarema. Schneidereith was named second-team All-CAA and Jarema was named the all-rookie team for her redshirt freshman season where she posted 12 goals.
Jarema, Schneidereith, Harris and Grady will return to the Dragons next year, looking to lead the team to its first conference playoff berth since 2016.