Alumnae Catch Up - Kate Speare '11

This week we catch up with 2011 graduate Kate Speare as she fills us in on life after Generals Lax!

1.  Name:  Kate Speare

2.  Graduation Year:  2011

3.  Position:  Attack

4.  Major:  Accounting and Business

5.  Where do you live now?  I am living in Charlottesville, VA where I just finished a year masters program for accounting.  I will be studying for the CPA in Charlottesville for much of the summer.  Then I will move back home to Wallingford, PA before moving again to Washington D.C. in September.

6.  What are doing now for work?  This summer I will just be studying for the CPA Exam.  I will start working in Assurance for Ernst & Young in October.

7.  Favorite lacrosse memory from W&L?  There are way too many good memories to narrow it down to just one!

8.  What do you miss most from Lexington?  Blue Sky Bakery

9.  How did W&L or your lacrosse experience help prepare you for what you are doing now?  Many of my major classes I took helped me learn subject areas that I am currently reviewing for the CPA.  The knowledge I learned from my major will be used when I start work in October.  In addition to the general accounting and business knowledge I learned at W&L, the hard work and time management skills I acquired from both classes and lacrosse have greatly added to my success this past year and will definitely help in the Fall.

10.  If you could have a super power what would it be?  It would be to apparate so I can instantly be anywhere with no travel time or expense!

A big thank you to Kate for filling us in on her life after W&L.  Lucky for us, D.C. isn't too far away so hopefully we'll see her for the alumnae game in the Fall if Ernst & Young can spare her for a weekend!

Congratulations Class of 2012!

While I know we have already celebrated the athletic achievements of the class of 2012 on our team, it seemed only fitting on the day of their commencement to celebrate them as graduates as well.

 While the iPhone has many capabilities, distance and moving photos are not ones that it is known for.  And I suppose my photography skills are not quite all they're cracked up to be, so please enjoy the professional lax shots and very amateur graduation shots as we celebrate our seniors the last day that we can call them that!


Jennifer Linder, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Science, cum laude

 Jenn, waiting for the procession of faculty to begin!

Lauren Acker, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Arts, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude

Lauren, almost too quick to be caught by the camera!

Christina Benedetti, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude

 Bene, looking super psyched on her way in!

Alli Shearin, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude

 Alli, with her usual smile, as she marches into graduation!

Maddie McKaig, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Science with Special Attainments in Commerce

Maddie is receiving her degree under the tent if you look hard enough!

Congratulations to all of the graduates in the Washington & Lee University Class of 2012 and a special final thanks to our five very special seniors!  You will be more than missed!

Ode to the Selfie

First of all, I would like to apologize to any of our avid blog readers for not having a post last week.  We would like to thank everyone for their continued support over the season through the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and your physical presence at our games.  It was a great season full of ups, downs, bumps, bruises, and everything in between!


Some of our ups of course include our ODAC Championship...

As well as six of our players receiving ODAC honors...

Christina Benedetti (pictured above) was named the ODAC Player of the Year as well as being selected to the first team along with Alli Shearin and Leanne Stone.  Cara Mulligan (pictured above) and Meade Brewster were both named to the second team with Olive Waxter picking up the third team nod.

While all of these accolades are fantastic and the whole team should be proud, what they should really be proud of is there successful use of selflies!  For those of you that don't know, one of Urban Dictionary's definitions of the word is:


"When someone takes a picture of themselves looking ugly or funny and sends it to their friends to get them to laugh. People who do this are not trying to look good and usually don't. The typical selfie face involves a peace sign and duck lips."


The team has these gems down to a science, case and point the beauties I received a few nights ago that brought a huge smile to my face.  I just didn't feel it was right not to share them with the rest of the world...

The other definition that Urban Dictionary uses describes someone who takes a selfie as someone who doesn't have any friends to take a picture with, but our team has thrown that definition out the window! Everything's better when our team works together, and that includes selflies!

Spring Term

As promised last week, the girls share their favorite things about Spring Term... besides lax of course!!!

Lauren Acker ’12 – I'd have to say my favorite part of spring term is being able to meditate in class every day and riding my bike to school and practices! 

Ashley Barnes ’13 – I'm in a class with only one other student! I dont think you get that opportunity at many schools. Also my professor has brought in a lot of great speakers.

Christina Benedetti ’12 - I love spring term because puzzles and games has kept me entertained through solving puzzles all day.  I've also learned how to solve a rubiks cube just like JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!

Meade Brewster ’14 – My favsies part of spring term is hanging with my 23 bestehs on the team and gypsying around with them!!!

Elizabeth Bucklee ’13 – My favorite part of Spring Term is getting to wear my colorful clothes after a long Winter Term!!!!!

Sarah Gray Erickson ’15 – My favorite thing/least favorite thing about spring term is all the food we've eaten...

Katie Hagen ’14 – My favorite part of Spring Term is getting to hang out with my pals all the time and do fun and cracey things like 1. sumo wrestling with Meade (see pic) and 2. hanging at the river with my friends/teammates.

Adele Irwin ’15 – My favorite part about Spring Term is going off campus with my friends.

Margaret Klein ’14 – My favorite part about Spring Term is that I only have class 3 times a week, which means I have more time to hang with friends and enjoy the warm weather!

Catherine Klinedinst ’15 – I like how much more free time I have to do work so I'm not up all hours of the night and I can go to fun places like Panther Falls!!!!

Meredith Lavin ’14 – My favorite part of Spring Term is all the free time I have to hang out with friends.

Jennifer Linder ’12 – My favorite part of spring term is hanging out with teammates outside all day before practice, and not having to worry about my crazy science major schedule.

Katie McCartin ’15 – Having time to go on adventures with my friends!  To places like panther falls.

Maddie McKaig ’12 – My favorite thing about spring term is tubing on the Maury. 

Cara Mulligan ’15 – My favorite thing about spring term is driving around in Kirby's Jeep with the top down with ma friendz! woohooo!

Alli Shearin ’12 – My favorite part of spring term is the fact that I don't have class until 12:20, so I never have to wake up early unless it's by choice.  I also love the extra time it gives me to hang out outside in the nice weather.

Leanne Stone ’14 - My favorite part of spring term is that you have a lot of free time to enjoy the warm weather and hang out with friends before you part for summer! 

Kirby Taylor ’15 – I like the weather and being able to lay out in a bathing suit without being cold.

Alex Van Horn ’14 – My favorite part of Spring Term is having so much time to hang with all of my pals!

Julia Van Sant ’15 – So far, I love that we have the time and opportunity to experience the several traditions of W&L. For example, the freshman lacrosse players went to Panther falls for the day where we swam, ate lunch, and hung out with each other outside of lacrosse.

Olive Waxter ’14 – My favorite part of spring term besides lax is to take afternoon roomie naps with Leanne.

Greta Witter ’14 – My favorite part about Spring Term is the opportunity to have an entirely different classroom experience. I'm in "A Course About Nothing" - class is held at the Buddhist Center; we do lots of yoga, spin, and meditation.

Namaste. 

Sammy Yates ’15 – Sunday drives with Hagen listening to gr8 tunes and finding cool places like Goshen. Also going to Panther Falls with all of the lax freshies.

Spring Term sounds like a pretty great time to be a General!  An even better time to be a General is today at 4pm as we take on Guilford in the ODAC semifinals on Watt Field!  Be there to support the Generals!