UMBC Women’s Lacrosse Ready for 2022 Season

UMBC women’s lacrosse will open their 49th season of play against Longwood on February 12 at a different location on campus. The Retrievers will play all home games during the 2022 season at Retriever Soccer Park due to the ongoing renovations to UMBC Stadium. The opening draw versus the Lancers takes place at 2:00 p.m. and the game will be streamed on the America East digital network.

2022 Roster | 2022 Schedule

BALTIMORE– UMBC women's lacrosse will open their 49th season of play against Longwood on February 12 at a different location on campus. The Retrievers will play all home games during the 2022 season at Retriever Soccer Park due to the ongoing renovations to UMBC Stadium. The opening draw versus the Lancers takes place at 2:00 p.m. and the game will be streamed on the America East digital network.

The Retrievers are coming off another strong season where they made an America East Tournament appearance, falling to Stony Brook who won their eighth straight title.

Retriever Notebook

UMBC women's lacrosse was picked to finish in second place in the annual preseason America East Conference coaches' poll,.The Retrievers (6-6, 5-4 America East) picked up one of the seven first place votes with reigning champions Stony Brook finishing with the other six votes, as coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team.

The Retrievers will return their top four point-getters from a season ago, led by junior Claire Bockstie (Forest Hill, Md./Maryvale Prep) who finished 2021 with 50 points (42g, 8a). UMBC will also return sophomore Dymin Gerow (Baltimore, Md./Episcopal), junior Megan Halczuk (Fawn Grove, Pa.), and graduate student Olivia Docal (Glenwood, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel). Gerow finished second with 29 points on 26 goals and 3 assists with Halczuk (27 pts; 18g, 9a) and Docal (26 pts; 24g, 2a) back in the fold.

Four other starters return for the Retrievers. Graduate student goalkeeper Lexi Roberts (Baldwin, Md./Fallston), senior defender Adriana D'Amore (Mount Airy, Md./Linganore) sophomore midfielder Kennedy Evans (Mount Airy, Md./South Carroll), and sophomore A/M Lauren Conduitt (Fox River Grove, Ill.) give UMBC experience at all levels of the field.

Robetrst, Docal and seniors Rachel Ridgley (Owings Mills, Md./Franklin) and Megan Cleverly (Middletown, Md./Middletown) have been selected as team captains for the 2022 season.

Bockstie earned 2021 America East First Team All-Conference, All-Rookie, and All-Academic honors, while junior Megan Halczuk (Fawn Grove, Pa.) joined her on the First Team. Halczuk broke out in her sophomore season, breaking the UMBC single-season and single-game draw records. She finished the 2021 ranked seventh in the nation and first in the America East in draw controls per game (8.67) and was an instrumental part of UMBC's 14th-ranked draw control percentage (.586) and 7th-ranked draw controls per game (16.75) unit.

Gerow and Evans both earned America East Second Team and All-Rookie Team honors.

The 2022 slate features seven home games, including the season opener against Longwood in early February. UMBC also faces George Washington (Feb. 26), Temple (March 4), Towson (March 9) and Robert Morris (March 19) at home in the non-conference portion of the schedule.

The America East schedule features six games in the month of April, with alternating home and away contests. The Retrievers will be on the road for games against UMass Lowell (April 2), Vermont (April 9), and defending league champion Stony Brook (April 23). UMBC will host Binghamton (April 6), UAlbany (April 16), and New Hampshire (April 30).

UMBC women's lacrosse head coach Amy (Appelt) Slade was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame on October 2. Slade was selected to join the hall in the spring of 2020, but the induction ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Slade was inducted into the hall after her illustrious career at Virginia, where she won the prestigious Tewaaraton Award in 2004, becoming the first Cavalier to win the award, and was a member of the national championship squad in the same year. Slade also holds the Virginia women's lacrosse records for points (373), goals (258), and consecutive-games scoring (66).

Alex Benedict, who has been on the coaching staff at UMBC for the past nine seasons, was elevated to the role of associate head coach back in November. Benedict is in charge of recruiting and oversees academics for the program. The Retrievers finished the 2020-21 season with a 3.58 grade point average, the highest of any women's lacrosse program in the America East.

Assistant coach Morgan Stephens enters her seventh year on Hilltop Circle and rounds out the coaching staff.

A Look at the Lancers

Longwood produced a solid 8-9 season in 2019, but struggled to a 2-13 mark in 2021. Senior Haley Moomau is the team's leading returning scorer, producing 18 goals a year ago. Seven freshmen have been added to the Lancers' 2022 roster.

The Retrievers have won both previous match-ups versus Longwood. They thrashed Longwood, 17-5, at home in 2017, before earning a 13-10 victory in Farmville the following season.

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