BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Vermont women's lacrosse team will play eight home games and face teams from seven different conferences during the 2009 season. Head coach Jen Johnson announced the team's schedule today. The Catamounts will open the 2009 campaign in Storrs, Connecticut when they take on the UConn Huskies on February 21, in what will be the earliest season opener in the program's history.

UVM returns home for three straight games at Moulton Winder Field, where it went 5-2 last season and set a new mark for most wins at the turf facility that opened in 2005. Vermont begins the homestand hosting Dartmouth on February 24. Following the three consecutive home games, the Catamount head west over Spring Break to take on Oregon, UC Davis and California from March 8-14. The trip will be UVM's second trek to the Pacific Coast in three years and will mark a stretch of five straight road games.

When Vermont returns to the East Coast, the Catamounts will open up America East action at Binghamton on March 21 and also face LeMoyne while in the central New York region. UVM will host key America East games against UMBC (March 28), Boston U (April 11) and Stony Brook (April 25), while traveling to league rivals Albany (April 1) and New Hampshire (April 18).

The top four teams in the final America East regular season standings will advance to the conference playoffs on April 30 and May 2. The winner of the America East Women's Lacrosse Championship will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Vermont is coming off one of its most successful seasons in school history in 2008. The Catamounts returned to the America East Women's Lacrosse Championship for the first time since 2003. UVM finished the year with an 8-9 record, the most regular season victories since 1993, and went 5-1 in America East, setting new school marks for most league wins and the highest finish in the conference standings (2nd).

In 2009, the Catamounts will return 92 percent of their scoring and its top five points leaders from a year ago, including midfielder Kristen Millar (Whitby, Ontario), who was named to the IWLCA Northeast Regional All-America Team for the thid straight year and also garnered a spot on the America East All-Conference First Team last season. Also returning to the mix is midfielder Megan MacDonald (Wayland, Mass.). She became the first Catamount to win America East Rookie of the Year honors in 2008 and Johnson was the first women's lacrosse coach at Vermont to earn America East Coach of the Year.

February
  Wed 11    Massachusetts (scrim.)        2:00 pm
  Sat 21    at Connecticut                1:00 pm
  Tue 24    Dartmouth                     3:00 pm
  Sat 28    Holy Cross                    1:00 pm
 
March
  Wed  4    Siena                         3:00 pm
  Sun  8    at Oregon                     3:00 pm
  Wed 11    at UC Davis                  10:00 pm
  Sat 14    at California                 3:00 pm
  Sat 21    at Binghamton *              12:00 pm
  Sun 22    at LeMoyne                    2:00 pm
  Wed 25    Boston College                3:00 pm
  Sat 28    UMBC *                        1:00 pm
 
April
  Wed  1    at Albany *                   3:00 pm
  Sat 11    Boston U *                    1:00 pm
  Sat 18    at New Hampshire *            1:00 pm
  Tue 21    Long Island Univ.             4:00 pm
  Sat 25    Stony Brook *                 4:00 pm
  Thu 30    at America East Semifinals     TBA
 
May
  Sat  2    at America East Championship   TBA

Home games in bold CAPS.
* America East Conference games
All times are Eastern Standard (EST).

2008-12-09