After months dedicated to training, the State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY) women's lacrosse team is eager and excited to make its mark this 2020 season, starting in its season opener against Utica College Saturday. 
 
Last spring, the Hawks had a record breaking season defeating eight teams, the most overall and conference wins in program history, which earned SUNY New Paltz its first ever spot in conference playoffs where it fell to eventual champions The College at Brockport.
 
Junior attacker Amy Hofer had an incredible 2019 season, starting in 15 of 16 games played and finished with 42 goals and 50 points, following fellow junior attacker Tara Bovich who recorded team-bests in both goals (46) and points (61).

"Last season ended on a positive note," Hofer said. "We obviously lost first round of playoffs, which we could have went further. We definitely worked really hard to get there so I feel like getting into first round of playoffs is only pushing us to try and make it even further this year."  
At the beginning of the conference playoff game against Brockport last spring, SUNY New Paltz was a strong force in the early minutes of the game, going tit-for-tat in plays with its competitor. Yet, before the end of the first half, the Golden Eagles established a hefty lead that the Hawks were unable to recover from. The season ended with Brockport defeating SUNY New Paltz, 17-8, leaving the Hawks hungry to come back and go further than they ever have before. 

SUNY New Paltz has been preparing for its season by not only training during the offseason, but by establishing common goals that unify its mentality going into their 2020 campaign. The Hawks focused on improving in areas they struggled with last season, especially on the defensive end while continuing to be more productive on offense with the young weapons they added to join Hofer, Bovich and second-year attackers Katie Zito and Maddy Carullo.

"We've really emphasized points like taking it game by game [and] not to think too far ahead in the future… let's focus on Utica right now and not get ahead of ourselves, take it one day at a time," Hofer said.  "We've been working a lot on our defense. Our defense is definitely looking very strong this year. And as far as our offense goes, we've really been working on using each other to put some goals in the back of the net."
 
Last season, SUNY New Paltz lost four seniors who contributed to the growth of the program. Reflecting back on 2019 and the inevitable shift in dynamic that results when gaining new players, Hawks coach Keith Detelj, who is entering his fourth season explained, "Every year the personality and players change. Our current team continues to show our staff how hard they train. The practices continue to get better every day and that is the type of excitement and attitude we are looking to bring to our first game and the rest of our season. [We] have 10 new faces and that is a great amount of skill and energy to mesh with some veterans who keep proving they can meet and exceed new challenges."
 
Moving forward, the Hawks are focused on accomplishing the goals they set out for themselves in 2020 and surpass last season's record breaking year. They are eyeing another run in the playoffs and believe they have the potential to contend for their first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship. They return 11 starters and with 10 new additions, they are arguably the deepest team they have ever boasted in the history of the program. They are excited to translate what they have on paper with results on the field.
"Our season goals are to always put ourselves in a position to win a championship and not to get caught up with last year's results," Detelj said. "We are concentrating on what we can control, our mentality, and how hard we work each week to give us the best opportunity to play at our highest standard.

"I feel that we will continue to rise. We keep adding winning character and talent and players are not satisfied with being the same level team as they were last year. I am just continuing to be excited to see how this team comes their own over this year." 
 
The Hawks will put their training to the test for the first time this season at home against Utica College. Last year, SUNY New Paltz fell to the Pioneers in their home opener by a close margin of 10-9. The tight loss still lingers in the minds of the returners, who are looking forward to avenging that loss and put together a statement victory in their season opener. 

"I think we're really excited to come out and play on Saturday," Hofer said. "We did lose to Utica last year so it's definitely going to be a good game, so I think we're really excited for that." 
 
The Hawks are set to take on the Pioneers Saturday on the North Turf Field at 1 p.m. 
 
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