Posted: Feb 09, 2010
Roanoke College enters the 2010 season ranked 17th in the IWLCA Div. III Pre-Season Top-20 Poll announced this morning. The Maroons ODAC-rival Washington & Lee entered the spring ranked #19 in the national poll.
The Maroons will face four of the top-20 teams this season. The Maroons have early tests against #18 St. John Fisher (3/3) and #2 Salisbury (3/14) before #13 SUNY-Cortland arrives to Salem on March 19. The biggest ODAC game of the year will be in Lexington, VA against the Generals on March 29.
The women finished last season, 16-5 and claimed Roanoke's first women's lacrosse ODAC championship in 10 years. The Maroons advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons and advanced to the Regional Semifinals. The 16 wins tied the 1988 team for the second-most in program-history. The 11-game win-streak was the longest since the 1992 season.
Head coach Mary Schwartz earned her first ODAC Coach of the Year award last spring while Gina Valles (South Windsor, CT, Westminster ) was named ODAC Player of the Year in addition to IWLCA Second-Team All-American honors . Paige Mason (Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, Orangeville) was a First-Team All-ODAC and an IWLCA Third-Team All-Chesapeake Region selection last year.
Roanoke will travel to Orlando, FL to open its season at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex during spring break. The season-opener will be against in-state foe Mary Washington on March 1 at 10:30 a.m. The trip will conclude with a match-up against #18 St. John Fischer on March 3 at 10:30 a.m.
