After yet another disappointing finish to the 2023 campaign, the Marist women’s lacrosse team will be in new territory for the first time in 13 years.
With the resignation of former head coach Jessica Wilkinson, newly hired Keith Detelj has taken the reins and looks to right the ship and get this team back to the MAAC playoffs for the first time since 2021.
Detelj, a Marist alumnus, has plenty of coaching experience to try and overhaul this team that finished in the bottom half of almost all major offensive categories last season. He comes in with offensive coaching experience; as an assistant coach with the Kennesaw State Owls, he helped the women’s lacrosse program set records in wins with 11 and goals scored with 255 in 2022.
“When it first popped up, and it was an option for me, at the time, I was excited,” said Detelj. “This place has a lot of good memories for me and just being back in this area, which has created all those memories; it’s just awesome to be back.”
The team finished last in the conference in 2023 for the second year in a row, with a record of 2-6 and an overall record of 4-12. The only in-conference wins came in back-to-back home games against Manhattan and Niagara.
With the release of the 2024 schedule, the non-conference matchups for Marist are daunting. After hosting the University of New Hampshire, they will play the likes of Binghamton, Oregon and UConn on the road and welcome Vermont, Hofstra and Columbia to Poughkeepsie before MAAC play.
But with teams like the Ducks, Catamounts, Pride and Lions all finishing at .500 or below last season, this team could steal some key non-conference games before conference play.
Detelj is not the only new face on the staff; Giuliana Durso was hired as an assistant coach. Durso is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she played goalie for the Bearcats in 40 games over four seasons.
Having a combination of offensive- and defensive-minded coaches will be a good mixture for the Red Foxes. While the offense was hard to come by last year, they also finished last in goals allowed per game in the conference with 16.26 and a save percentage of .411.
In the MAAC preseason rankings, the reigning champion Fairfield Stags took the number one spot yet again for the fifth straight season. The Red Foxes were placed ninth out of 10 total teams, beating out Rider by 12 votes.
After her All-MAAC first-team selection last year, superstar graduate attacker Kerri Gutenberger finds herself on the Preseason All-MAAC team yet again. She is the only Red Fox to be named after a stellar 2023 with 51 goals and will look to get others involved in 2024.
“Everyone is filling a new role with a new offense that we’re in,” said Gutenberger. “The love will spread everywhere, so it’s not just Kelly [Trotta] and I putting it away.”
But the poll ranking is just a number to this team. The players have full faith in the new system Detelj has brought to Poughkeepsie.
“We have a lot of different strengths. You have highly dynamic players like Kerri [Gutenberger], and you have very skillful players like [Kelly] Trotta and the other attackers that we have,” said Detelj. “Then you have the heartbeats of the team like Delaney [Hayes] and the passion getters that just drive a different type of pace of the game,” said Detelj.
Graduate student attacker Kelly Trotta was another focal point of the offense last season, netting 45 goals while starting in all 16 games. As Gutenberger and Trotta are both second-time captains, they are prepared to get more of the girls involved, making sure the ball gets into more sticks in the offensive zone.
“I think that we have a lot of underclassmen and other fellow upperclassmen that are excited for the new techniques that we’ve been talking about,” said Trotta. “The plays and sets that we’ve set up because it’s not just focused on one player or two players. It takes all seven of us to beat another seven girls.”
Also serving as a captain is senior midfielder Delaney Hayes, who earns the title for the second time in her career, followed by junior midfielder Chloe Birckhead and junior defenseman Sophia Georgopolous for the first time. With all of the heavy hitters staying put, the team has another year to build up their chemistry.
“It’s exciting to implement the new techniques we have into gameplay situations, which we haven’t been able to do yet,” said Georgolopous.
But on top of the key contributors, they were quick to point out a budding star for the Red Foxes, freshman attacker Greta Govoni out of Dover, New Hampshire. Govoni was a star at Brewster Academy, where she broke the 100 career points mark in just two seasons. She was also an Honorable Mention All-NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council) in 2023.
“We have Greta, who’s come in confident and with a lot of skill, so that’s exciting,” said Hayes.
The women’s lacrosse team is ready to be tested against non-conference teams like Oregon and UConn. Without the burden of high expectations coming into this year, they are ready to play fast and unafraid.
“Everybody’s eager to learn. I feel like no one is complaining about anything ever. Everyone’s like a sponge, ready to soak up new ideas, and we’re just excited to see them,” said Birckhead.
Marist will start their bounce-back campaign on Friday, where the path to the MAAC Championships starts against UNH at noon at Tenney Stadium.
Edited by Marley Pope and Sam Murphy
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photos from Marist Athletics
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