A-B Quartet Ready to Lead St. Michael's Women's Lacrosse Team

If the St. Michael's women's lacrosse team makes some noise this season in the Northeast-10 Conference, you can bet four former Acton-Boxborough stars will have factors.

The Saint Michael's College women's lacrosse team's schedule is annually powerhouse at the regional and national levels, although last year was a disappointment.

A year after Saint Michael's posted a 4-12 record, including 1-11 in the team's NE-10 slate, third-year head coach Ashley Hughes points to a narrow 11-9 loss against seventh-ranked Stonehill College last March as one of the signs that the Purple and Gold can compete with some of the top teams in the league.

"We try to approach every game in the same way that we approach every practice, in that we want to be better than the day before," said Hughes in a release. "Last year was a great example of that, when we came out against Stonehill and really almost shocked them, ourselves and the conference by taking it down to the end."

The Purple Knights return a bulk of players (13) who recorded points last year. But one graduated senior scored nearly one quarter of the team's goals, meaning Hughes will look for a more balanced attack in 2013.

"Knowing that a lot of our sophomores got a ton of playing time last year and are starting to mature and develop, we're looking now for a more collaborative approach as opposed to depending on one or two people to be the goal scorers," said Hughes. "We've built an offensive set that really fits the talents that we have, finding skills in people that were already there and pulling them out even further."

Junior attack Shannon Murphy (Boxboro, Mass./Acton-Boxboro Regional/UMass) notched seven points last year but was limited to eight games, including five starts.

Senior captain Amy Forshay (Boxboro, Mass./Acton-Boxboro Regional) drew four starts in the defensive third in 2012 while appearing in 12 games. In her first season of college lacrosse, junior Maeve Carroll (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro Regional) started eight times in 14 outings while recording 12 ground balls and causing 10 turnovers.

First-year player Emily Loebs (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro Regional), who also plays ice hockey, should also see important minutes.

"We set out every day to be competitive within ourselves and get better, set small goals, try to be mentally tough, and make good things happen," said Hughes. "Mental toughness is one thing we have been trying to work on and, with everyone being a year older and continuing to mature, we hope it shows this year on the field."