Ohio State junior attackman Molly Wood races up field against Penn State on April 12, 2016 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Credit: Courtesy of OSU Athletics
The Ohio State women’s lacrosse team had three athletes who received preseason All-Big Ten honors. The honors were given to two defenders, senior Christina Turner and junior Shannon Rosati, and junior attackman Molly Wood.
Turner and Rosati are both coming off of a season in which they were named to the All-Big Ten team, while Wood is the returning points leader for the Buckeyes. All three players are expected to be a few of the greatest contributors for OSU’s 2017 campaign and are looking to step into larger leading roles.
“We don’t really focus too much on it,” Rosati said. “We’re not a big individual team. It’s cool and all, but we can’t focus on that. We’ve got to focus on the team goals.”
OSU found themselves sitting at No. 5 in the Big Ten’s preseason poll. This comes as a disappointment to a team that feels like they can compete for a championship.
“We’re coming into the season with a chip on our shoulder, that’s not where we want to be,” Wood said. “We’ve been at the top of the Big Ten before and we know what it feels like. I think that’s a feeling that we’re going to carry with us this season to get us back on top.”
The Buckeyes will open up their season against a University of Vermont team that dropped their first game to Louisville after finishing last year 6-10. Even so, OSU is still looking to come out and showcase why they should be higher than fifth in the Big Ten.
“[We’re looking to] just push it and show what we’ve been working on all fall and spring,” Wood said. “We didn’t end last season how we wanted to and now we’re going to come out on fire.”
OSU should be able to get off a lot of shots against the Catamounts, who allowed 51 shots in their loss on Saturday. But since the Buckeyes averaged a fifth-best 25.8 shots per game last season in the Big Ten, they will have to work for those opportunities.
In what will be the first matchup between these two schools in program history, Rosati said that they want to come out and prove themselves from the beginning.
“We don’t want to wait until the middle of the season to show what we have,” Rosati said. “We want to have a huge game all around the field and start off with a bang.”
The game is set to start at 7 p.m. on Monday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and the Buckeyes believe that things could not be any better ahead of their season opener.
“We’re going to match up well and it’s going to be a great game against them,” Wood said. “I think it’s a perfect first game. We’re going to have a blast, but I know we can come out on top as long as we play well.”
