Gettysburg Women's Lacrosse: October 2009

#15 Nicole Ditillo
Position: Defense
Height: 5-5

Class: Junior

Hometown: Baldwin, Md.

High School: Fallston

What are you most looking forward to about being a captain in 2010?

I'm looking forward to contributing to my team to the best of my ability, and being part of the leadership of a team that has the potential to be the best team we've ever been in my four years at Gettysburg.

What are you most excited about in the 2010 season?

I am excited and anxious to see how our Senior class steps up in our leadership roles this year. I am also very excited to see how the First-years will contribute to our team, both in talent and personality. We are looking to carry a larger squad this year, which means that we have more opportunities to change and expand our game. The thing I am most excited about is hosting the Final Four on Clark Field. I know that my teammates would love to win the crown this year at home on Clark, and that we will work harder than we have ever worked in order to acheive that goal.

What is your favorite drill in practice? What is your least favorite?

My favorite drill is probably the one when Barb lets us hit the attackers with the football pads, but sometimes I get a little carried away with that one. I also really like working with our zone in 7v7, and I also like the "4v4 with the two outlets" because it is fast paced and makes you work a little harder on defense because you have to cover more area. My least favorite.....Um, definitely the "I hate the midfield drill" OR "Undercut" OR "Ground ball to groundball drill." Lot's of running!

Do you prefer running or lifting better?

This is going to sound sad, but I prefer running because it means I can eat more dessert from the dessert counter at Servo!

Pose the next question:

What would you change about the game of women's lacrosse?

#1 Lexie Hearn
Position: Midfield

Height: 5-5

Class: Junior

Hometown: Old Greenwich, Conn.

High School: Greenwich

What are you most looking forward to about being a captain in 2010?

I learned a lot about being a captain last year. How to put my team before myself and do so willingly and happily. I learned that being a captain is not easy and not always fun. As a captain last year I learned a lot about my teammates and was able to connect with them individually. I hope to build upon that this year. This year is unique because of how close our senior class is. We have all been playing together for a long time and have built strong connections on and off the field. As a captain this year I can rely on those strong relationships to help me in leading the team.

What are you most excited about in the 2010 season?

I am absolutely looking forward to every part of this season (that does not necessarily include pre-season ha). I have been playing sports my entire life and it is a big part of who I am. I am very nervous about lacrosse season ending because it will be the end ofall my years of hard work. Because of that fear I am going to make sure that I soak up every second I have left. I am looking forward to building a new team and making this season my most memorable one.

What is your favorite drill in practice? Least favorite?

My favorite drill is...steal the bacon!!

My least favorite drill would have to be "undercut."

Do you prefer running or lifting better?

I think i prefer lifting better than running because although it makes you much more sore afterwards, its not as painful at the time haha.

Carol Cantele has molded the Gettysburg College women’s lacrosse team into one of the premier programs across the nation over the course of her 17 seasons at the helm. She is Gettysburg’s all-time leader in victories, compiling a career record of 230-80 (.742), and she ranks 10th all-time among all NCAA coaches (all divisions) in career victories with a record of 254-103 (.711) over 21 seasons.

Cantele, who is fifth among active NCAA Division III head coaches in wins, has guided the Bullets to a conference record six Centennial Conference championships (2000, 2002-06), nine appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2000, 2002-09), and 13-straight winning seasons. Cantele has coached 25 Bullets to Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-America recognition, including three national players of the year.

Gettysburg has won at least 14 games each season since 2000, including a school-record 21 en route to the program’s fifth consecutive CC championship and a national runner-up showing in 2006. That season, the Bullets achieved their first No. 1 national ranking, a feat they duplicated in 2007 with a run to the NCAA semifinals.

Gettysburg’s success continued in 2009 as Cantele took a young team devoid of any returning All-Americans to the NCAA semifinals for the third time in four seasons. The Bullets polished off the season with a 16-4 overall mark and ranked seventh in the final IWLCA national rankings.

Cantele has achieved the highest honors her field has to offer, being named the NCAA Coach of the Year by the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse, and womenslacrosse.com in 2006 and being tabbed Metro Region Coach of the Year four times. In 2009, she was awarded the Judith M. Sweet Commitment Award by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), given to those individuals who have provided outstanding leadership and commitment to colleagues and student-athletes in intercollegiate athletics.

Cantele reached a coaching milestone in 2008 with her 200th career victory at Gettysburg when the Bullets defeated Gwynedd-Mercy College 21-2 on March 3. On April 10, 2002, Cantele became the program’s all-time coaching victories leader and the first Gettysburg women’s lacrosse coach to win 100 games when the Bullets downed Dickinson College 16-9. She led her 1995, 1997, and 2001 squads to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Mid-Atlantic playoffs, capturing the championship in 1995.

Cantele also compiled a school-record 121 coaching victories and five conference championships in 10 years with the Gettysburg field hockey program before resigning in 2002 to focus on women’s lacrosse and her new role as Gettysburg’s senior women’s administrator.

Prior to returning to her alma mater, Cantele turned around the lacrosse program at Plymouth State University, taking a 3-9 team in her first season there to a 10-2 team in her last in 1992. In her four seasons at the helm, she was 24-23. She also coached the Panthers’ field hockey team for two seasons, leading the squad to a 20-11-2 record and an appearance in the ECAC semifinals.

Cantele served as a graduate assistant with the field hockey team at Miami (Ohio) University from 1986-88 where she attained an M.A. in physical education with an emphasis in sport psychology/coaching behavior. She also served as the head coach of the club lacrosse team at Miami.

Cantele is a 1983 graduate of Gettysburg and played both field hockey and lacrosse as an undergraduate. She was a member of the 1980 field hockey team that captured Gettysburg’s only team national championship. She resides in Gettysburg with her husband, Mike, who is the head athletic trainer at Gettysburg College.

Barb Jordan enters her eighth season as head field hockey coach and assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Gettysburg College in 2009-10. The former head women’s lacrosse coach and assistant field hockey coach at Bucknell, Jordan has guided the Bullets field hockey team to a berth in the Centennial Conference playoffs in each of the last six seasons and an ECAC Division III championship in 2005. During her tenure, she has compiled a 79-55 overall record, including a 48-21 mark in conference play.

With Jordan leading the way, Gettysburg has won at least 10 games in each of the past six seasons, including tying a program record with 17 victories in 2005. The Bullets have spent time in the national polls in each of the last five seasons. In 2008, the team posted a record of 13-6, marking the second-most victories under Jordan’s tutelage. Gettysburg ranked as high as 15th in the national poll and reached the semifinals of the CC Tournament.

As an assistant with the Bullets women’s lacrosse team, Jordan has played in integral role in one of the top programs in Division III. Over the last seven years with her on staff, Gettysburg is 124-22, has claimed four conference championships, and has reached the NCAA Tournament each year. The Bullets lacrosse team has made three appearances in the national semifinals, including a runner-up finish in 2006.

A 1986 graduate of Penn State with a Bachelor of Science degree in recreation and parks, Jordan came to Gettysburg after compiling a 47-40 record in six years with the Bison women’s lacrosse team, including a 13-3 mark in 1997. Her 47 victories are the most by a Bucknell women’s lacrosse coach.

In addition, she spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Bucknell field hockey program, helping guide that squad to a program-record 14 victories in 1999.

Before arriving in Lewisburg, Jordan spent one year as an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Division I Vanderbilt and six years as a physical education teacher and varsity girl’s lacrosse coach at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., serving as the chair of the physical education department from 1993-95.

At Penn State, Jordan was a three-time women's lacrosse All-American, as well as a three-time team most valuable player and team captain in 1985. She also earned varsity letters on the Nittany Lions' field hockey team in 1981 and 1982. She was a member of the United States women's lacrosse team from 1982-89 and was a starter on the 1986 U.S. World Cup that captured a silver medal. She also served as captain of the U.S. under-23 team that toured England, Scotland and Wales in 1987.

She won the Beth Allen Award in 1992, presented annually by the United States Women's Lacrosse Association to a lacrosse player at the national tournament who exhibits highly developed skills, discipline, and a sense of sportsmanship and spirit for the game. In November 2004, Jordan was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Katie Hagan returns for her second season as the Bullets assistant lacrosse coach in 2009-10. In her first year on the staff, she helped Gettysburg to a 16-4 overall record and an appearance in the NCAA Division III semifinals.

Hagan starred for four seasons as a member of Gettysburg’s midfield from 2004 to 2007, helping the Bullets to an impressive overall record of 72-11 (.867), including 34-2 (.944) against members of the Centennial Conference. Gettysburg won three conference championships during that time and appeared in the NCAA playoffs all four seasons. In 2006, Hagan helped lead the Bullets to a school-record 21 victories en route to the national title game.

Individually, Hagan appeared in all but four games during her four seasons, accruing 143 points on 90 goals and 53 assists, the latter marking the eighth-highest total in school history. As a senior in 2007, she posted career marks for goals (35), assists (32), points (67), ground balls (43), and caused turnovers (32) en route to being named CC Player of the Year, first-team All-Metro Region, and first-team Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-America. In a thrilling regular season contest with top-ranked College of New Jersey, Hagan tallied two goals and two assists, including dishing out the helper on the game-winning goal in overtime.

A native of Media, Pa., Hagan earned a BA in Management from Gettysburg in 2007.