Women’s continue preparations for inaugural with first full intrasquad scrimmage

The University of Rhode Island women’s lacrosse team held their first intersquad scrimmage at Meade Stadium on Saturday, with the team preparing for their inaugural season this upcoming spring.

The lacrosse team’s recruiting process began last year, made up of an inaugural class of 15 players, with 14 new players coming to Kingston this fall to make up the rest of the team. The scrimmage allowed the coaching staff the chance to see what their team was capable of for the first time in a full 12-on-12 situation, according to URI Head Coach Jenna Slowey. The blue team defeated the white team in the scrimmage, 11-9.

“We have a full team now,” second-year midfielder Calli Dunn said. “Our practices, our drills, everything looks so much different. We are able to work as a full team and work as a unit on both offense and defense.”

Slowey, who was named the first head coach in program history in July 2022, spent the previous season as an assistant at the University of Notre Dame in 2021-22. Before that, she spent five seasons as an assistant at the University of Richmond. Slowey also added assistant coach Riley Smith to her staff in September of 2022. Although the schedule for the season has not yet been released, Slowey said she wants her squad to be competitive against whoever they play and make a statement come the spring.

The intersquad scrimmage allowed for the Rams to get a feel of what real-game scenarios and situations would look like now that they have a full roster, according to Slowey. One way they did this was by having recently-hired assistant coach Cara Moreau, who joined the team this past July, get back on the field for Saturday’s scrimmage. She played offense for both teams during the game. Moreau graduated from Villanova University in 2024, and was the lone captain of the Villanova team in her graduate season. Moreau totaled 55 points in 41 games over three years after spending the 2020 and 2021 season at Drexel University.

“We definitely need some leaders to step up,” Slowey said. “That was also the purpose of some of the transfers I got in the portal; getting people that had experience on and off the field at a high collegiate level was definitely important. We have a lot of expectations for people to step up into a leadership role…We’re focusing on ourselves. We want to get 1 percent better everyday.’

URI will compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference in the spring, entering as the eleventh team to join the conference for lacrosse. As they continue their preparations for their inaugural season, the team will travel to Columbia University next Saturday to face Long Island University and Iona University.