When the women’s lacrosse team takes the field at John F. Wiley Stadium for its first game on Feb. 28 against Alma, the expectations will leave room for overachieving. The Yellow Jackets were ranked last out of eight teams in the preseason poll, for the newly formed women’s lacrosse sector of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC).

Interim head coach Gennaro Bonaventura, now in his second season at the position, saw his team finish 0-15 overall, and 0-11 in the now-disbanded Ohio River Lacrosse Conference (ORLC) last season.

“The overall goal for the season is to win a game,” he said. “Also, be more competitive, because the scores were way too lopsided last year.”

Bonaventura had to take over last season’s team on the fly after Stephanie Benkowski, who had coached the women’s lacrosse team for two seasons and volleyball team for 13 years, left the athletic program.

“It was kind of crazy how everything happened last year with Stephanie being let go,” Bonaventura said, “we were kind of scrambling.”

The team hasn’t been scrambling heading into this season, and that’s been the biggest difference according to Bonaventura.

“This year has been a little more organized,” said Bonaventura. “Everyone has been on the same page this year, while last year was kind of hit or miss.”

The re-established consistency for the program has led to great improvement for the team according to Bonaventura, which is the beneficiary of having lost only two players to graduation over the offseason. The team has also been working since early in the school year, when it took part in scrimmages throughout the fall.

“Last year we had a lot of new girls out [for the team] that didn’t really know how to do it the right way or were nervous about it,” said Bonaventura. “Our catching and passing ability is way further ahead than it was at this point last year, and I think playing in the fall has had a lot to do with that.”

Heading into last year in the ORLC, the team had a difficult travel schedule, going as far as Indiana and Kentucky for matches.

Now in the PAC, it’ll take on opponents similar to other Waynesburg athletic programs, plus Franciscan. This will allow the team to avoid those extremely long trips. Bonaventura said it should help in multiple ways.

“Not traveling as much will be nice, and I think we’ll also have a more consistent roster,” he said. “We had some girls last year that couldn’t make trips, especially because we did a couple where we stayed overnight.”

It’s still looking like an uphill battle in 2019, but the team has a very simplistic goal.

“We’ve definitely been out of the win column for way too long,” said Bonaventura. “That will be our biggest goal.”

The Yellow Jacket lacrosse team will begin its spring journey Feb. 28 at home against Alma and begin PAC play March 30 when they take on Thiel at 1 p.m.