Third-year Head Coach Leslie Khachadourian said that despite losing two consistent starters to graduation—contributing scorer Laura Feeney and midfielder Danielle Schlegel—the returning upperclassmen and incoming freshmen are more than capable of stepping up and filling the holes.

Katie Fredlund who scored three goals and had six assists last season, was voted a captain again this fall. Unfortunately she was lost over the summer when she tore her ACL and meniscus. “It’s a huge loss for the team, but Katie is doing a great job of rehabing so that she can fully participate in the winter with the swim team,” said Khachadourian.

Returning starters for Rensselaer include three of the top five scorers from 2003: senior forward Anne Drames tallied seven goals and two assists, senior midfielder/forward Adele Godfrey-Certner had three goals and two assists, and sophomore midfielder/defender Katie Frank netted two goals and two assists.

Drames and Godfrey-Certner will look to again take control up front for the Red Hawks. The midfield is anchored by senior Lizzie Vitaliano and junior Mary Bond. The returning defense is led by Chetuck, Grammer, Frank, and junior Rebecca Primm. Regina Primm, who allowed only 12 goals in 13 games and had three solo shutouts and two shared shutouts, is back in goal.

Nine freshmen join the Red Hawks this year including forward Sarah Briggs and midfielder Kristy Kolb, who Khachadourian thinks will be able to step in and have an immediate impact on the field. Briggs comes to RPI from Mount Desert, Maine and Kolb is from East Greenbush, N.Y.

Khachadourian says the strengths of her team this year include speed, their passing game relative to other teams, and the ability to play as a unified squad. Their only weakness, according to Khachadourian, is the possible factor of inexperience off the bench due to the fact that there are eight freshmen on the team of 23.

In order to improve from last season, Khachadourian says the team needs to come together as a group and they need to move forward both individually and as a team with the same goals. Those goals include being an offensive force, making the Liberty League playoffs, and getting a birth into the NCAA tournament.

RPI again has a tough schedule ahead with out-of-conference home contests against powers NYU and Rochester as well as Liberty League games against nationally preaseason ranked No. 10 Union at home and No. 21 William Smith on the road. The Red Hawks also have to travel to take on a tough Liberty League foe in St. Lawrence.

With five of seven conference games on the road, Khachadourian said the league schedule will be a little harder but not a huge obstacle. The new softer turf surface on Harkness Field will help to ease the discrepancy between the number of road and home conference games. “The new surface is phenomenal,” said Khachadourian. “It will allow us to take the surface and apply it to both grass [surface] and other harder turf [surfaces].”