Going Out On Top?.
The last two years has seen Lenoir-Rhyne University win women’s South Atlantic Conference championships. Each year the Bears advanced to the NCAA D-II national playoffs. But in the offseason, the team lost its head coach. Six seniors from 2011 were gone as well.
Facing what many felt would be a “rebuilding season”, seniors Caitlin Scruggs, Carley Griffin and Dana Hillmann decided this would be their team and they would do all they could to continue the L-R tradition.
As they approach the final weeks of the 2012 season the Bears are once again nationally ranked, 11-1-0 overall and 7-0-0 in SAC play.
Scruggs, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Torrance, Calif.,who was first team all-conference as a sophomore, did not earn any SAC recognition at all last season.
This season she leads the nation in saves percentage at .917. She’s allowed only four goals all season and her goals allowed average of 0.37 is best in the league and seventh in the nation. With her in the goal, Lenoir-Rhyne is 43-6-3 over her fourth year career.
“You don’t want to be a part of a program that had a good year or two, but then fell off,” Scruggs told Matt Kline for an article for charlotteobserver.com. “We wanted to prove that this program could still excel even though we did lose a lot of good players.”
Facing what many felt would be a “rebuilding season”, seniors Caitlin Scruggs, Carley Griffin and Dana Hillmann decided this would be their team and they would do all they could to continue the L-R tradition.
As they approach the final weeks of the 2012 season the Bears are once again nationally ranked, 11-1-0 overall and 7-0-0 in SAC play.
Scruggs, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Torrance, Calif.,who was first team all-conference as a sophomore, did not earn any SAC recognition at all last season.
This season she leads the nation in saves percentage at .917. She’s allowed only four goals all season and her goals allowed average of 0.37 is best in the league and seventh in the nation. With her in the goal, Lenoir-Rhyne is 43-6-3 over her fourth year career.
“You don’t want to be a part of a program that had a good year or two, but then fell off,” Scruggs told Matt Kline for an article for charlotteobserver.com. “We wanted to prove that this program could still excel even though we did lose a lot of good players.”