Complete Release | PDF

SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's lacrosse team begins the 2013 season this weekend with four games at the Santa Barbara Shootout. Westminster will open the season on Friday against Western Washington before facing Minnesota that evening. The Griffins will then play Washington and UC-San Diego on Saturday to complete the trip.

Game Coverage
There will not be any live video or stats available for the games this weekend. Updates, when possible, will be available via the Griffins Twitter feed @wc_griffins. Scores will also be posted at WestminsterGriffins.com each evening.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster enters the new year coming off the most successful season in school history. The Griffins went 18-6 in 2012 and won a second straight Rocky Mountain Women's Lacrosse League D2 championship. They advanced to the semi-finals of the WCLA National Championships and earned a third-place finish with an 18-8 win over Rhode Island in the final game.

This season, the Griffins move to Division I of the WCLA and join Brigham Young, Colorado and Colorado State in the RMWLL. Westminster returns 12 players from the 2012 squad along with six newcomers. The team averaged 16.04 goals per game last season and they had 158 assists on the 385 total goals scored. The Griffins scored 61 goals on 133 free position shots (45.9 percent) and they converted seven of their nine man-up opportunities.

Chelsea Farrell was the top offensive threat for the Griffins last season. She scored a school-record 103 goals and added another record of 41 assists. Her 144 points were 50 more than the next highest total on the team and she also led the way with 179 shots and 147 shots on goal. Other key returners this season include Maggie HerrNeckar and Kaicee Beal. HerrNeckar finished the season with 79 goals and 94 points while Beal had 43 goals in nine games before suffering a season-ending injury.

Griffin opponents scored 9.42 goals per game in 2012 with 87 assists. The opposition was 47-of-110 on free position attempts (42.7 percent) and they took 20.1 shots per game. Westminster claimed 361 draw controls to the 287 by the opposition and they recorded 677 ground balls.

Against the Opposition
The only opponent this weekend that the Griffins have played is UC-San Diego. UCSD holds a 1-0 lead in the series after taking an 11-9 win over the Griffins on Feb. 13, 2010. That game was during this same Santa Barbara Shootout event.

Moving to Division I
The 2013 season marks the first as a member of the WCLA Division I for the Griffins after spending the first four years in Division II. Westminster is coming off back-to-back trips to the Division II semi-finals at the WCLA National Championships. With the move, Westminster will also compete in the higher division of the Rocky Mountain Women's Lacrosse League. The Griffins went 16-7 in the four years as a DII member of the RMWLL and won the conference championship in each of the previous two seasons.

Fast Starters
Westminster has had success at the Santa Barbara Shootout the past two seasons. The Griffins are 6-0 over the past two years at the event and have outscored the opposition 85-39 in those games. Westminster has extended the good start past the opening weekend as well. They began the 2011 season by winning eight straight games and then came back to win six straight to start the 2012 season.

Seven Short of 50
The Griffins enter the 2013 season just seven wins shy of 50 in the program's history. Westminster is 43-27 all-time for a .614 winning percentage. After winning just 13 games in the first two years of the program, Westminster went 35-13 the past two seasons. They are coming off a school-best 18-6 season in which they set the record for wins (18) and winning percentage (.750).

Record Setting Senior
Senior Chelsea Farrell begins the year at the school's all-time leader in goals and points. She has scored 188 goals during her Westminster career and has racked up 252 points in her 48 games played. Farrell averages 3.92 goals per game as a Griffin and has also taken more shots, 297, than any other player in school history. She established a new school-record with her 103 goals last season, surpassing her old record of 85 set during the 2011 campaign. Farrell is the only player in Westminster history to record 100 points during a season, doing it in back-to-back years with 108 in 2011 and 144 last season.

Beal is Back
Kaicee Beal comes into the season after missing the final 15 games of the 2012 campaign with an injury. Before getting hurt, Beal had scored 43 goals on 77 shots while also recording 77 shots. The senior has played in just 26 games during her Griffin career, but she is first in school history with an average of 4.31 goals per game. She ranks second all-time with 112 goals scored and she is third with 127 career points.

More from Maggie
Maggie HerrNeckar returns after one of the best freshman seasons in school history. HerrNeckar scored 79 goals last season and was also second on the team with 94 points. Her 15 assists placed third among all Griffins and she led the team with 19 goals on 32 free position shots. Only Farrell has scored more goals or totaled more points in a season in school history than HerrNeckar did in 2012.

Looking Ahead
Westminster will return to action on March 2 when they welcome Colorado Mesa to Dumke Field. The Griffins home opener will begin at 11 a.m. and be shown live on Griffins TV.