Chicago, Ill. - A new era for Illinois Tech women's lacrosse gets underway today when the team opens their 2025 season with a two-game road trip to Arkansas for matches against host Hendrix College tonight and Southwestern University on Saturday afternoon.

Head Coach Emily Wesoky takes over the reigns of the women's lacrosse program from Kirk Lamatie, who started the program in 2013 and completed his second tour of duty as head coach for the Scarlet Hawks in the 2024 season. Lamitie has since transitioned to an administration role within the athletics department.

Wesoky (weh-soak-ee), in her first season as a collegiate head coach, is excited for the challenge and to get the season started.

"I'm very excited," said Wesoky. "Very excited to get the season started. It's gone by fast, from the fall until now, but it also has felt like a while too, so I've just been waiting for this this weekend. I'm definitely excited for it to start."

"It's exciting that we get to travel as a team as well to start the season," Wesoky said. "It's definitely a lot, but the girls are ready. We've been working really hard, and I just want to give the girls a good experience, so I'm very excited for that."

There are pros and cons to starting the season with an extended away trip, especially for a new head coach and a rebuilding program, but Wesoky feels the ability for the team to get to know each other better and bond outweighs any of the drawbacks.

"At first, I was a little skeptical of having an away trip, that is a flying trip on top of it," said Wesoky. "That's a pretty big deal for our first games. But as I'm looking at it now, the girls are going to get very close from this trip. I remember when I was playing, going on these trips, flying, staying in hotels together, that is when we bonded the most. So I think it could be a really big advantage for the team to get closer. I purposely put them in rooms and cars together with people they don't normally hang out with all the time just to get everyone to bond together" Wesoky said.

The team starts the season with only seven returning players from last year's squad, which was a smaller roster to begin with. Among the players who moved on from last year are top goal scorer Kelly Hitchcock (60 goals, 6 assists) and the team's third-leading scorer, Faith Busche(19 goals, 27 assists). Long-time teammates in midfielder Mya Huddleston and goalkeeper Caitlin Davitt also graduated from the program. 

The Scarlet Hawks do return the team's top scorer in junior Antonia Martinez, who tallied 57 goals and 18 assists last season, finishing third in scoring in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) with 75 points. Taking over netminding duties for the Hawks will be graduate student Mercy Godfrey, who played in the field last year while serving as Davitt's backup. Sophomore Isabelle Niebler has transitioned to a midfielder role after starting on the back-end last season, and she will take over draw duties as well. Junior Iona Pettigrew will be asked to pick up some of the departed scoring from her position up front, while sophomore Shree Meher, junior Grecia Chacon and senior Maritza Torres provide experience on the field as they continue to develop their games.

Newcomers this season are first-year players Victoria Akirtava, Nayeli Samano and Aislinn McManus; sophomores Aisha Leatherwood, Yuliana Sanchez and Ellie Post; junior Maria Samano; senior Chloe Browder. In addition, graduate student Julianna Moore, a long-time member of the Scarlet Hawks women's soccer team, will compete on the lacrosse field this season, with her former soccer teammate, senior Lucy Jorjorian, providing depth support for the team. 

Despite the loss of talented veterans and an influx of new, and in many cases, first-time lacrosse players, Wesoky still has expectations for the team.

"I think the biggest goal for this season is being able to play a whole game competitively," said Wesoky. I don't want the girls to get down on themselves. If we are losing buy a good amount, and that's going to happen in some games - that's just being realistic - but there definitely are games that we can win. So the biggest goal is for them to be competitive and to build in that winning mindset. I also want them to have fun with this. I don't want them to be too hard on themselves. Now there's a fine line with that. I definitely want them to hold themselves accountable for some things if I know they can do better, and if they know they can do better. So just really building that winning mindset, having fun with it, and not taking it to heart too much if we lose. I think that's the biggest thing. As a coach, I want them to have a good college experience and a fun experience" Wesoky said.

Even though it's early, and the team hasn't played a competitive match yet, Wesoky does see strengths within the team.

"I think that we have some very strong people on both sides of the field," said Wesoky. "We're lucky enough to have girls that were soccer players their whole life, so they're very good at defense and they're defensive footwork, and have realized that recently and have moved some of them to straight defense. And the same thing on offense. We have some really strong players, like Toni Martinez, who is a very, very strong attacker on our team, and she'll be helping out a lot. Izzy Niebler, she's going be on the draw. She's tall, strong, and I think we'll be very good with that. Another strength I think we will have is working together, and putting it all out there. I think that's the only thing we can do right now. We don't really have a lot of depth with the size of our roster, and that's going to be our one disadvantage this season. But the girls know how to help each other in that situation.We've practiced and talked about slowing the ball down to give each other breaks and kind of utilize the time so that we're not so tired in the game, so that we can really play a competitive game the whole game."

The Scarlet Hawks face off against Hendrix College tonight at 5:00pm in Conway, Arkansas to start the season, followed by a match with Southwestern University tomorrow afternoon at 12:00pm in Conway.