The Generals Support Their Field Hockey Teammates and a Great Cause!

After the finish of the second full week of fall ball the team was not done with their time spent together just because we were done on the field! The girls cheer on their field hockey teammates at the turf field!

After a little muddy Friday practice the team was able to enjoy a team dinner at DHall before heading over to the turf field to support their teammates on the field hockey team. While the weather did not hold up for the whole game and the end score was not in favor of the Generals, the girls were loud and proud as they supported their friends. Great job to Christina Benedetti, Ashley Barnes, Taylor Zusi, Catherine Klinedinst, and the rest of the field hockey team!

While most of the team spent their Saturday morning catching up on some rest from the long week of practices, 9 Generals and MK headed out to Buena Vista to help out Habitat for Hummanity.
Sammy, Adele, Kirby, and Cara get their tool belts on and ready!

Site coordinator, Kelly met the group and filled us in on the home owners and the way Habitat works. Our new friend Joe then arrived to teach us all we needed to know and assign us our jobs. The girls did a number of jobs throughout the day including:

Roofing... our first years were the only ones brave enough to go up with Kelly!

Framing for ceiling work... Meade, Katie, and Kelsey hammered away all morning!

Sawing... Maddie and Horn overcame their fear of the power saw to become pros in building pickets!

The girls did a great job of getting right into the work and getting their hands dirty. Kelly and Joe were both very appreciative of the work the Generals put in and the girls had a great time!

Fall ball is more than half over; check back next week to hear about the 2011 Alumni Game!

Team Bonding: Both as Laxers and as Generals

First things first... Congratulations to Team 1 for winning the A to Z scavenger hunt last week! After a great practice on Friday capped by a full field scrimmage, the team was treated to a Salerno's team dinner at Coach Diamond O'Brien's house with salad, chicken and pasta, garlic bread, and of course, ice cream and cookies for desert. After a great first week of fall ball the girls really deserved a time to hang out and enjoy some great food!
The team dives into some delicious food from Salerno's!

Once dinner was finished Team 1 was announced as the winners of the scavenger hunt. Team members Maddie McKaig, Margaret Klein, Alex Van Horn, Katie Lotterman, Sammy Yates, and Cara Mulligan all received one "get out of conditioning free" card to be used this fall.

We were even lucky enough to have our field hockey players join us for our team dinner!

Later in the weekend the whole team got together again, but this time they were joined by all of the other athletes on campus as well. Senior captains Lauren Acker and Christina Benedetti were both part of the organization of the "23 All-Athlete Tug of War" that happened on Sunday night at Wilson Field under the lights.

Bene manning the tug of war bracket.

"23", chosen for the 23 varsity teams on campus, is an organization on campus working towards the goal of creating a community of athletes at W&L. The hope is that as all of the athletes get to know each other better they will be more likely to come out and support each other at home events.

Some laxers get excited in an early round of tug of war.

As the student athletes arrived they were each given a t-shirt and a 23 wristband. Each wristband was a different color representing the tug of war team that each athlete would join in the competition. There were laxers on every team mixing in with tennis, basketball, field hockey, soccer, and every other W&L athlete all over Wilson Field.

Olive and Mere get ready for one of the later rounds with the eventual champion red team!

All in all, it was a great night to see all the Generals out enjoying some competition and ice pops early in the fall. The laxers will be out later this week to support the field hockey team on Friday night as they take on Bridgewater. Go Generals!

Visit the blog next week to see the team supporting their hockey teammates and supporting a great local cause!

Generals Are Ready For School From A to Z!

Well the Generals laxers are all back on campus and ready to go! We kicked Fall Ball off with a bang sending the girls on an A to Z scavenger hunt that had the team running all over campus, and even through town, for the chance to receive a "get out of conditioning free card" to be used once this fall. To say the least the girls were competitive, and each team had their own strategy for winning the coveted prize.

The team was split into four smaller teams and each team was given an envelope with their instructions and just under an hour to complete their task. The teams had to stay together the whole time, document their finds with a digital camera, represent the letter they had found using their bodies in the pictures, and make sure they went in alphabetical order. Each letter finished was worth one point. Bonus points were given for a few things, including 10 bonus points for the first team to return.
K for kitchen! Athletic director Jan Hathorn gets involved in J and gets this team 5 bonus points!

P for Pi Beta Phi!

Really getting ready for the season with W for Watt Field!

Each team did an excellent job and everyone returned within the time limit so as to not be disqualified Top Model style. With all the teams collecting quite a few letters, any tie will be decided based on the creativity of the pictures. The winner will be announced this Friday at the first team dinner.

Make sure to check back next week to find out the winner and hear about team dinner at the O'Brien's!

A Name Change in the Women's Lacrosse Office

Since we have been chronicling what many of our student-athletes were up to this summer, it is only fair that we give our blog readers a glimpse into what our Head Coach was doing this summer:

Hi Everyone!
Welcome back to campus for what is sure to be another fantastic year for Generals Women's Lacrosse! I have been asked to blog a bit about my summer vacation. As many of you know, it was quite an eventful summer - in between recruiting, working camps and starting football preseason, Brendan and I found time to get married!

We were married on July 2, 2011 in my hometown, Longmeadow, MA and had an absolutely amazing day. Our wedding took place at St. Mary's Church where my grandparents and parents were also married - it was definitely incredible to be the third generation of my family married in such a beautiful church. Our reception was held at the country club in town and the band rocked well into the night with our lively wedding crowd.

We were lucky to be treated to an "Ultimate Day" weather wise and could not have felt more supported by the many family and friends who made the trip to Longmeadow to help us celebrate the start to our marriage.

After a quick "mini-moon" to North Hatley, Quebec- we were both back on the recruiting trail on Tuesday, July 5th - did you expect anything less? Don't worry - we will be taking a proper honeymoon in December.

Now it's time to focus on our fall season, welcoming our new First-Years to the team and laying the foundation for our 2012 season which is sure to be an exciting one!

See you all soon,
Coach Diamond O'Brien

P.S. A special thanks to my high school and college soccer teammate, Sarah O'Keefe Greig, for her fabulous shot of us leaving the church!

As Coach Diamond O'Brien said, the school year is upon us! So check back next week for an update on the team's arrival to campus and the start of fall ball!