Women's Lacrosse Continues on the Road at Longwood

FARMVILLE, Va. - Xavier women's lacrosse continues in road play on Sunday as they face Longwood. The matchup will be the Musketeer's third road game of the inaugural season.

Entering the program's 20th season, the Lancers were picked to tie for an eighth place finish in the Big South Conference Preseason Poll. As the Musketeers enter the first season in program history, the BIG EAST Preseason Poll predicted a seventh place finish for the new squad.

In their inaugural season in 2004, Longwood posted a 14-1 record. In 2009, the team joined the National Lacrosse Conference and was a member until the conference disbanded in 2012 and immediately joined the Big South in 2013. The Lancers made appearances in each NLC tournament from 2009-12 and won three of the four, only falling to High Point 7-15 in 2011. Since joining the Big South, Longwood has made appearances in seven of the conference tournaments and earned a spot in the final in 2014 where they fell to Davidson 9-12.

GAME INFORMATION

XAVIER MUSKETEERS vs LONGWOOD LANCERS
Sunday, Feb. 26 | 12 p.m. ET | Farmville, Va.
Live Stats: https://longwoodlancers.com/sidearmstats/wlax/summary

ABOUT LONGWOOD

2023 Record: 2-1 (0-0 Big South)
2022 Record: 6-11 (3-6 Big South)
First Season: 2004 (14-1)
Series History: 0-0
Head Coach: Kylar Ferguson (1st Season)

SCHEDULE NOTES

• The 2023 women's lacrosse inaugural spring schedule will consist of five home matches and nine road games with a full BIG EAST schedule.

• Xavier women's lacrosse will play teams from seven different conferences in the inaugural season (BIG EAST, Big Ten, PAC-12, Horizon League, Big South, Southern, and Mid-American)

• The Musketeers will also compete against another first year program - the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Both Xavier and Eastern Michigan have spent the last year building programs from the ground up.

• Xavier will participate in BIG EAST play but is ineligible for the conference tournament in the first year of the program. They will be eligible for the tournament in the 2024 spring season.

PROGRAM NOTES

• Head Coach Meg Decker came to Xavier from Hartford where she built the program from the ground up. Prior to Hartford, Decker helped build Virginia Commonwealth University's women's lacrosse program from scratch as an assistant coach and was a student-athlete on the inaugural women's lacrosse team at the United States Naval Academy.

• Assistant Coach Grace Beshlian comes to Xavier from William and Mary where she spent the 2021-22 year as an assistant coach. Prior to William and Mary, Beshlian served as a student assistant coach at UConn in 2021 following her standout playing career for the Huskies from 2016-20.

• Director of Operations Erin Rubright arrived at Xavier following a one year stint as the Temple Football Graduate Assistant for Player Development and Recruiting. Prior to Temple, Rubright worked in the Liberty University Football program as a student worker in recruiting.

• Xavier Lacrosse's inaugural squad consists of three graduate students, four juniors, two sophomores, and 20 freshmen. With transfers from Vermont, Hartford, Walsh, Duquesne, and Winthrop, the coaching staff at Xavier has established a strong foundation to support the large number of freshman.

BIG EAST PRESEASON POLL

BIG EAST Preseason Poll
First Place Votes in ()
Denver (6) 36 pts
Georgetown (1) 29
Connecticut 26
Marquette 21
Villanova 18
Butler 11
Xavier 6

UP NEXT

• The Musketeers will travel to South Carolina to see Presbyterian on March 4 and Wofford on March 7.

Schedule

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