Women’s lacrosse started out their season on February 23 with a 10-9 loss on the road against Springfield College.

The team was not nearly ready to settle with this result and came back with fire against the next opponent Wheaton College, dominating the game with a final score of 18-5, leaving the Lyons in the dust. The game against Wheaton set the pace for the next four games for the Hawks.

Ryleigh Cavanaugh, junior attack and midfielder, has been impressed with how the Hawks have responded since their opening game.

“We had a huge win against Colby College a couple weeks ago which definitely got us fired up,” said Cavanaugh.

Colby College was ranked ninth in the country at the time — the victory being the first against a nationally ranked team in the 19-year history of the RWU program.

Cavanaugh credits the team’s start to the accountability among players and coaches within the program. “We are really good at realizing what we had done poorly in previous games and
improving it in practice for future games,” she said.

“We all know how well each one of us can play so we hold each other to very high standards,” said Cavanaugh.

Besides the 2022 season being their first full season in three years, the Hawks also welcomed their new coach Amanda Magee, a RWU lacrosse alumni from the Class of 2010. She stepped into the role after Jen Fox Sargent announced she would be leaving the program last October to become the head coach at Merrimack College.

“We didn’t have a difficult time transitioning at all, we are all pretty good with going with the flow and learning new tendencies wasn’t too hard for us,” said Cavanaugh. “Coach Magee was also transitioning into Roger Williams and she was coming into 30 new girls which we also realized and wanted to make her feel as welcome as we could.”

As they look to continue their success, the team regularly implements what they expect in a game on the field in practice as well.

“We push each other a lot in practice to make our offense and defense stronger,” said Cavanagh. “As hard as it is at the moment, it definitely pays off in our performance on the field.”

In the midst of a six-game winning streak as of March 25, the Hawks prepare for a home game against Babson College on Sunday, April 3 at 1 p.m.