The William Smith lacrosse team will play its home opener on Tuesday, March 22 when the Herons host St. John Fisher at 5 p.m. It will be an historic day for William Smith Athletics, as it will be the first time a Heron team has ever played a game on Boswell Field.
"This will be an historic day for the women of William Smith as the first varsity Heron athletic team competes on Boswell Field," says William Smith Director of Athletics
Deb Steward. "Boswell Field has been home to Hobart football and lacrosse; however, with the recent renovations including the FieldTurf surface, 'The Boz' becomes the new home for William Smith lacrosse."
Boswell Field was originally constructed in the 1920s and moved to its current location in 1974. It served as the home of Hobart football in the fall and Hobart lacrosse in the spring for the first 36 years of its existence. Following the completion of the 2009 football season, construction crews gave the Boz and its surrounding facilities, the Caird Center for Sports and Recreation, a complete makeover. The natural grass was upgraded to state-of-the art FieldTurf. What used to be a wooden grandstand is now aluminum bleachers with VIP arena seats. The upgrade also included replacing the scoreboard with a state-of-the-art video board and expanding and renovating the team rooms of Elliott Varsity House.
The Herons are riding a two-game win streak into their home opener against the Cardinals. After being edged 15-14 in their season opener at Nazareth, William Smith traveled to Florida to take part in the SpringFling Tournament. The Herons upset No. 19 Babson 19-18 to advance to the championship game. William Smith faced Messiah for the tournament title, and came out on top in another one-goal game. A goal by junior #
Lucy Johnson# with just 12 seconds remaining secured a 10-9 win.
Junior #
Callie Frelinghuysen# leads the Herons with 12 points on eight goals and four assists. She has also scooped up a team-high 12 groundballs and caused seven turnovers. Johnson is right behind her with 11 goals this season. Sophomore #
Jesse Wilson# has played the majority of minutes in goal and is sporting a .452 save percentage and a 12.78 goals against average.
Admission to Tuesday's game is free. A limited number of William Smith lacrosse "Making History" t-shirts will also be given away to fans at the game.
