NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt women’s lacrosse team doesn’t start its season until Feb. 9, but there is still plenty to be excited about.
For one, Vanderbilt returns one of its strongest offenses to date after scoring the fourth-most goals in program history (229). The Commodores bring back a vast majority of their offensive weapons with 171 of those 229 goals returning for the upcoming season.
Emily Mathewson has been a huge part of an offense that has scored 468 goals combined from the 2018-19 seasons. She scored 77 goals over the past two seasons with a career-high mark of 51 in 2018.
Entering her senior season, Mathewson is just six goals from reaching the 100-goal mark and should make her way up the Vanderbilt career leaders for goals and assists.
When @Vandylacrosse student-athlete Emily Mathewson was a freshman, she felt something was missing. In her search to give back, she found @FoJFoundation and a girl named Bella. Learn more about their bond at https://t.co/Jw6hbstb24 pic.twitter.com/tGxv394hWR
— Vanderbilt University (@VanderbiltU) March 29, 2019
Along with being an excellent goal scorer Mathewson is currently 11th in the Vanderbilt record books with 55 career assists. And as good as good as Mathewson was in that category, there was no better passer for the Commodores last season than Gabby Fornia.
Fornia set a Vanderbilt record with 36 assists during her sophomore season. She is directly behind Mathewson on the Vanderbilt all-time list with 52 career assists and she is on pace to crush the Vanderbilt career assist record of 88 assists held by Sarah Downing.
Along the way Fornia will have to pass assistant coach Jill Doherty (84 assists) who is second all-time in Vanderbilt history.
3️⃣6️⃣ Assists
5️⃣1️⃣ PointsGabby Fornia led the Commodores in both categories this year to earn AAC First Team honors! #AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/Y3rZg3vc0J
— Vanderbilt Lacrosse (@VandyLacrosse) May 2, 2019
The Commodores received an excellent offensive surprise last season from Sophie Furlong who led the team in goals with 33 in her sophomore campaign. Furlong was incredibly effective with five-goal performances in four different games last season.
Furlong also flirted with leading the nation in shot percentage, but ended the season with a 0.635 percent mark.
Scoring = started!
What a pass by Emily Mathewson to Sophie Furlong to put @VandyLacrosse on the board first! pic.twitter.com/WiLSRo0XGi
— American Women’s Lax (@American_WLax) April 14, 2019
Gwyn Devin can’t be forgotten, either. She comes into her senior season with 36 goals through the last couple of seasons.
Hat trick for Sophie Furlong off the feed from Gwyn Devin! #AnchorDown
⚓️ 12
🐶 8 pic.twitter.com/zQ7kyvD0jj— Vanderbilt Lacrosse (@VandyLacrosse) April 14, 2019
Even with that offensive firepower among the upperclassmen, the Commodores also received strong offensive outputs from underclassmen. The Vanderbilt freshmen stepped up in a big way with 44 goals spread out among six freshmen.
Maddie Souza led all freshmen (17) with Bri Gross (12) and Callie Sundin (13) also scoring in double digits.
ALL THE HATS for @VandyLacrosse in this one! Add Maddie Souza to the list!
Vandy 17, UConn 13 | 9:58 left pic.twitter.com/9F0M6lDPUZ
— American Women’s Lax (@American_WLax) April 14, 2019
Vanderbilt begins the 2020 season on the road for three straight games before returning home for its first home game Feb. 22. All Vandy lacrosse games are free admission.
